THE NEIDHART PLAYS:
A SOCIAL AND THEATRICAL ANALYSIS

By
VICTOR RENARD COOK

A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF

THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1969

iliBiiii||ll

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Assistiince from Mr. Jesse R. Jones, Jr., of the Graduate Research
Library at the University of Florida is acknowledged and deeply
appreciated.

To the members of his examining committee, Professors G. Paul Moore,
C. Frank Karns , and Jam.es Lauricella, the writer offers his thanks.

He is particularly grateful to Professors Sarah Robinson of the
Department of Antliropology and Melvin Valk of the Department of Germxtn,
for the i;ij,.e they spent reading draft copies of this study. Their
suggestions and advice concerning the sociological and philological
aspects of the subject were invaluable.

Finally, the writer acknowledges the debt he owes Professor L. L.
Zim.merman, the principle director of this study. Professor Zimmerman's
patience, wisdom., and good Iium.or made com.pletion of this work possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

INTRODUCTION ■ 1

PART ONE. THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE NEIDHART PLAYS.

Chapter

I. THE NEIDR/\RT PLAYS AS SOCIAL DOCUMENTS 14

II. THE ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT 37

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEIDHART LEGEND 58

PART TWO. THE NEIDHART PLAYS
AS WORKS OF THEATRICAL ART.

IV. THE THEATRICAL ORIGINS 0^-^ THE NEIDHART PLAYS .... 86

V. THE DESCRIPTIVE AiNALYSIS OF THE NEIDHART PLAYS ... 110

VI. THE THEATRICAL FORiM OF THE NEIDHART FLAYS 130

CONCLUSIONS 156

APPENDIX A 160

APPENDIX B 162

APPENDIX C 224

APPENDIX D 231

BIBLIOGRAPHY 253

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 262

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to expose the social and theatrical
significance of four of the five extant late medieval German dramatic
works based on the legendary character of Neidhart. The works in
question are the fourteenth century St. Paul Neidhart Play, the fifteenth
century Greater Neidhart Play, Lesser Neidhart Play, and Sterzing Scenario.
The four plays have no known authors. The fifth play. Per Neidhart mit
dem Feiel, written by Hans Sachs in the middle of the sixteenth century,
is not considered in this study inasmuch as it belongs to the Renaissance
rather than the medieval tradition.

The plays, along with a contemporary medieval legend titled Neidhart
Fuchs , were based on the life and poetry of a thirteenth century poet,
Neidhart von Reuental. Both the plays and the legend have roughly similar
plots. Ihe protagonist is a homeless knight, named Neidhart, who professes
courtly love toward the Duchess of Austria. As proof of his love, he sets
out on a quest for the first violet of spring. This spring violet was
customarily plucked by the most beautiful lady in the land, and its discovery
was proof that winter had passed and the joys of summer and love were near.
In the plays, Neidhart is always successful in his quest. He finds the
violet, addresses it tenderly, covers it with his hat, and then goes to

^Hereafter, the plays will be referred to as the St. Paul, the Greater
Neidhart, and the Lesser Neidhari. These plays first appeared in a master^s
thesis by Victor R. Cook, "The Neidhart Plays: An Analysis and Translation
or Three Medieval German Folk Dramas" (University of Florida, 1964). Tlie
Sterzing Scenario has not appeared in r:nglish translation to date.

fetch the Duchess and her entourage of maidens. A peasant chief named
Engelmair, or one of his lieutenants, Elschenpreclit , or Enzlman, has been
secretly observing Neidliart . Ulien Neidhart leaves to seek the Duchess,
the peasant stealthily leaves his hiding place, lifts the liat , picks the
violet, and then defecates on the spot where it stood, lie tlicn places
Neidhart 's liat on tlie feces and returns to his hiding place to see what
will transpire. Neidhart returns with the Duchess who is beside herself
with joy at the prospect of receiving the violet. When she lifts tlie liat,
however, her joy turns to great sorrow or anger. She threatens Neidliart
with death, banishment, or promises he v;ill be shamed because of his
insult to her. Neidhart, thus disgraced, vows he will punish the miscreant
whom he knows somehow must be a peasant. In tlie meantime, tlie peasant
miscreant has returned to Zeislmauer, the place where the peasants are
celebrating the return of spring. His neiglibors are overjoyed at his
cleverness in bringing Neidhart into disgrace. Tlieir joy, like that of the
Duchess, is short-lived, liowever, because Neidhart arrives, often with armed
companions, and proceeds to punish the peasants. In one version, lie hangs
tv\/o of them, then tricks the remainder into believing they are monks, at
which point he shears their locks and confines them in a monestary, where
devils are set loose on them. In all versions of the plays and in the
printed version of the legend, the peasants are bound to "stilts" because
Neidhart hacks off their leL't legs. The plays, with on.e exception, end
with at least the presumption that Neidhart returns to a state of grace
at the ducal court.

The Neidhart plays are worthy of study from both sociological and
theatrical viewpoints. Their social significance is twofold. First, they

represent the expression of a portion of the late medieval world-view.
Secondly, the plays stand as records of an older and ongoing social
dilemma -- the conflict between peasant and warrior. The theatrical
significance of the plays is considerable. Tlie St . Paul is the earliest
extant secular play in the German language. The Greater Neidhart is the
longest medieval secular play in any language. The Lesser Neidhart
is a typical fifteenth century fastnachtspiel, and the Sterzing Scenario is,
to this writer's knowledge, the earliest secular prompt book from the medieval
period. Thus, study from both view points is warrajited.

Since the treatment of the plays in this study involves a considerable
amount of medieval German liistory, the following brief historical outline
is offered to orient the reader to the three historic periods which pertain
to the analysis of the Neidhart plays.

The first history of tlie Germans is recorded in Julius Caesar's
Memoirs of the Gallic War, published in 51 B.C. Iv'hen Caesar fought the
Germans, they had a primitive economy based on hunting, herding, and farming,
with land being owned by family groups rather than by individuals. The
second historical account available is Tac it us ' G er}T,an i a , published in
98 A.D. This work indicates that in the ensuing interval the Germans had
become more adroit at farming, and also, their material wealth seems
to have permitted a greater differentiation of labor. In addition, certain
clans became more important than others. In terms of an individual's rank
in society, a dual system of recognition appears to have been operative.
Individuals could either be ranked on the basis of land and kinship, or
on the basis of their prowess in war.

4

The Middle Ages traditionally begins in 410 A.D. with the "sack of
Rome" by the Visigoths. Kith the advent of the Carolingian Dynasty of the
ninth century, the warrior system of ranking took formal precedence over
the land/kin based system. The beginning of the High Iliddle Ages and the
feudal order is dated from this century. The High Middle Ages saw its
peak in Germany during the reign of Fredrick I, Barbarossa (1152-1190),
with the apogee of medieval German artistic activity occurring very
shortly thereafter. The Poets Wolfram von Eschenbach (d. circa 1225),
Walther von der Vogelweide (d. circa 1230), and Neidhart von Reuenthal
(known from 1215 to 1236) span this period of excellence.

The last period considered here is the Late Middle Ages. It was
marked by the dissolution of the feudal order and the shift from the
Middle High German language to the Early New High German. The period
opened with a political crisis known as the Interregnum which involved
the seventeen year gap between the HohenstauCen and Habsburg dynasties
(1256-1273) and left the German states in complete shambles. In terms
of artistic endeavor, the Late Middle Ages is known as the "silver age"
of German literary art. The Neidhart apocrypha (spurious poetry attributed
to the historical character Neidhart) was written during this period.

In the fourteenth century, the German social situation became more
chaotic. Peasant coalitions took over Switzerland, a coalition of merchant
city states called the Hanseatic League humbled the crown of Denmark, and
knight and peasant coalitions attacked cities in Alsace. Vvith respect to
other events in the period, gunpowder was introduced to the science of
warfare, the Black Plague decimated a quarter of the population of

Europe, an economic depression began, and the most astounding drunkard
in history, the Good King V/enceslaus (d, 1410), ruled Germany during tlva
last years of the century. A legend was also born about a kniglit named
Neidhart Fuchs , "enemy of the Peasant," and the first of the plays considered
here (the St. Paul) was written in the midst of this period.

Fifteenth century German history is a record of both crises a.nd
development. In terms of the former, between 1415 and 1417, the Church
found itself without a pope, after having as many as tliree in the previous
century. It was in this century also that Jan Hus , the Czech reformer,
attacked Germany with mortars and horse-drawn tanks, and when he was
burned at the stake, his general, Ziska, attacked anew, \ll\en Ziska, in
turn, was _.lain in battle, it was rumored that his skin was flayed from
his body by his follov/ers and made into a vvar drum, the sound of which
reputedly made German soldiers quake. In some states, fifteenth century
Germans saw justice meted out by the Vehmic, courts which were secret
tribunals composed of vigilantes. The end of the century, and of the
Late Middle Ages, saw the beginning of humanism, the birth of tlie printing
press, and the somewhat more stable political situation which prevailed
during the Renaissance. The last three plays treated in this study u-ere
written during that portion of the fifteenth century in which the social
situation might be said to have been least well-ordered.

The tlrree historic periods outlined above shov; something of the
social and political milieu which influenced the development of the
Neidhart plays.

The plan of analysis of the four plays falls into two parts. Part

6

one exposes the social significance of the plays, and part two is

2

concerned with tlie liistory and significance of the plays as works of art.

Eacli of tlie tv.'o parts contains three essays, which, respectively, identify
pertinent Iiistorical and critical features of tlie plays.

The analytic method employed in the social analysis with which the first

part of the study is concerned is an adaptation of Claude Levi-Strauss '

3

"Structural Analysis of Myth." This approacl^, described in detail in

Chapter one, resembles the pragmatic branch of semiotics in that it deals
with the qualitative description of the latent content of communication.
This method was deemed preferable to the traditional content analysis
because the plays were not vehicles of overt propaganda. T'ne quantitative

description of the manifest content of communication, which is the goal

4
of content analysis, works best when the communication represents one

viewpoint. The vievjpoint in the plays under examination is unique, however,

inasmuch as the Neidliart legend is a part of the "folk" tradition of the

Late Middle Ages. Tliat is, it had a general audience rather than an

audience restricted to a given estate. Furtliei^m.ore, taken as a corpus,

the plays manifest conflicting and ambivalent tendencies which makes them

difficult to analyze witliout referring to the underlying meanings. Moreover,

the discrepency wliich becomes apparent when events of plays are compared

2
Previous works which bear directly on t'ne plays as works of art include

Konrad Gusinde, Neidhart mit dem Veilchen in German! st is die Abhand 1 ung ,

XVIII (Breslau, 1899), and F. Hintner, "Beitr-dge zur Kritik der deut'schen

Neidhartspiele des 14 und 15 Jah.rhunderts" in Jahresbericht des StMdt

Gymnasiums (Wels, 1903-07). Both deal primarily with poetic and literary

analysis and bear a tangential relationship to this study.

7

Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, tr. Claire Jacobson and
Brook Grundfest Schoepf (New York. 1963). Lt^vi-Strauss applies this approach
in "Four Winnebago Mytlis" in Culture in History, ed. Stanley Diamond (New
York, 1960). -_ _— - —

Bernard Berelson, "Content Analysis" in Handl^ook of Social Psychology
(Reading, Mass., 1954), p, 489.

7
with the nature of the historic moment make it necessary to interpret the
various motifs found therein, for one cannot say that the events which
occur in the plays generally happened or, in fact, ever happened at all.
Knights did not mutilate peasants as a rule, as the earlier synopsis
of the legend suggests, since there v.-as a desperate need for the
peasants' produce, and conversely, peasants certainly did not gratuitously
insult armed men on horseback. The events in the plays, then, are not
a reflection of what the situation actually was, but rather of what men
imagined it to be.

The definition of the social situation contained or reflected in the
plays did not directly reflect the material, economic, or social truth
of the time. Nevertheless, it is important, for in the words of W. I.
Thomas' famous aphorism, "If men define situations as real, they are real
in their consequences." If the plays had reflected directly and coher-
ently what actually occurred in fourteenth and fifteenth century Germany,
it would have been an incredible feat of sociology and history, if not
of art, for according to tlie respected medievalists Strayer and Munro,
the confused state of affairs which characterized the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries in Germany "... defies description.""

The structural analysis undertaken in this study reveals the form of
a set of basic assumptions a.bout the relationships of three pivotal social
statuses: the duke, the knight, and the peasant in this, the waning of
the Middle Ages.

^Social Behavior and Personality, ed. Edmund H, Volkart (New York,

1951), p. 81

Joseph
(New York, 1959j , p. 502.

Joseph Reese Strayer and Dana C. Munro, The Middle Ages, 'Ith ed.

Before going on to a survey of Part Two of tills work, a justification
for the sociological approach to the study of art; especially dramatic
art, will be submitted. Hiis justification will discuss tlie kinds of
information one can expect to obtain via the social analysis of art,
wliat the limitations of that type of analysis arc, and finally, factors
limiting the amount of information one can derive from it.

Arnold Hauser, the noted art historian and authority on the social
aspects of art, provides answers to the questions posed above in his
discussion of the general topic of art and its relationsiiip to society.
He holds tliat art and society are mutually influential. Art works are
not solely the product of individual imagination and experience, they are
rather "... the outcome of at least three different typos of conditions;
psychological, sociological and stylistic."^ Society itself is influenced
by art in various degrees because of the use of art as an overt form of
propaganda or because of the incidental credence on the part of the

Q

consumer m tne basic assumptions found in the art work. The information
one can derive from the social study of art is an interpretation of
natural and historical events as seen through the eyes of a representative
individual of a group. One can discover their "... opinions and valua-
tions of prestige and other social aims." Among the other social aims
one ouglit to consider is the necessity for the individual and the group
to maintain adequate definitions of the situation in which tliey find

^Arnold Hauser, The Philosophy of Art History (New York, 1959), p. 13.
^Ibid. , p . 7 .
^Ibid. , p. 21.

tliemselves. For while material interests are important to human beings,
"the fundamental motive of human beliavior is not self-preservation, but
preservation of the symbolic self." Social groups, speaking through
a representative individual, express their symbolic selves in the form of
a definition of their respective situations. An examination of art from
a sociological viewpoint exposes, in part, the particular definition of
the situation reached by the group examined.

Some of the limitations of the sociological ap-proach to tlie study
of art are im.mediately apparent. Questions conceriiing style and psychology
are tangentially related to sociology. They act as co-factors in the final
product since the individual psyche and the individual style are affected,
but not determined, by social influence. As Hauser says, "all art is
socially conditioned, but not everything in art is definable in socio-
logical terms." Other liraitations of this mode of inquiry include the

12
fact that artistic excellence is not definable in sociological terms,

and conversely, popularity, which is distinctly a .social phenomenon, has

13

no correlation with artistic merit.

The final aspect of the social study of art v/hich must be considered
here is the relative amount of information one can derive from particular
forms of art. Three general factors seem to affect the informative
potential of a genre.

S. I. Hayakawa, Symbol, Status, and Personality (New York, 1963),

p. 37.
11

Hauser, The Philosopliy, p. 8.

l^ibid. , p. 8.
^^Ibid. , p. 10.

10

The first of these factors has to do with the relative degree of
reactance of the form to its social milieu, social reactance being a
function of the social distance of a cultural construct. For example,
instrumental music has a greater distance from its social origin than
does epic poetry. The degree of social/ideological saturation is less
in the former and more in the latter artistic genre. The theatre and its
associated literary form traditionally have the least social distance of
all the arts since it deals most often with the illusion of interacting
human beings. Thus, from a sociological standpoint, dramatic literature
has a relatively high informative value.

The second factor affecting the sociological value of an art work is
the degree to which it tends toward popular, or toward esoteric appeal.
The highly informative art work is that one which pleases the broadest
portion of society. There are, of course, some works of art which are
"great" in a critical sense, but which are appreciated by a very few
people. The social analyst, therefore, finds his richest source of
information in those works which are highly prized by a mass audience,
rather than in those works which are appreciated by a few, however culti-
vated that few may be.

The final factor which determines the informative value of a work of
art concerns the degree to which the work is traditional, or to which it
tends to be innovative. Simply put, the sociological value of a popular
work of art increases proportionally to the amount of time the work
enjoys popularity. A myth or folktale is a rationalization of the
fundamental and enduring needs of a society, and as such, warrants more

14

Clyde Kluckhohn, "Myths and Rituals: A General Theory" in Harvard

Theological Review, XXXV (1942), 78-79. ~

11

attention than does the art object which has a momentary burst of
popularity, however brilliant.

The analysis of the Neidhart plays from a sociological viewpoint is
trebly justified: first, as dramatic works they are socially reactive;
secondly, they, as well as the legend with which they were associated,
were created for a popular audience rather than for a select few; finally,
they are traditional rather than innovative v/orks. Tlius , one could expect
that a considerable amount of information would result from a sociologically-
based examination of the subject plays.

In Part Two of this study, the plays will be examined as art objects.
The first item to be considered will be the theatrical origins of the
plays (Chapter Four). In Chapter Five, all four plays will be subjected
to a descriptive analysis, and in the final chapter, an exposition of the
probable modes of their production will be given.

The history of the theatrical origins of the Neidhart plays, of
necessity, will be one which is tentatively offered because of the
paucity of primary evidence pertaining to the plays, or to any other type
of secular drama during the period considered.

In the descriptive analysis of the plays (Chapter Six) , the usual
critical approaches which seek to explain drama in terms of archetypical
patterns, artist's intentions, metaphors, or architectonic structure have
been rejected in favor of the general approach of R. S. Crane and the
so-called Chicago school of criticism. This critical position, simply
put, isolates and defines the underlying formulative principles in a given
art work as a whole. In this approach, neither particular portions, nor

12
inferred universal properties, of the art work obscures the critic's
task of describing the art form per se . The application of this approach
to the Neidhart plays will demonstrate that the least well organized of
the plays possesses more coherence than would be generally supposed.

The final chapter offers suggestions concerning the manner in which
the plays may have been produced. The staging practices and spatial
organization of the several productions are examined, and the relationship
of the Greater Neidhart and the Sterzing Scenario to productions of religious
dramas and the para-theatrical tournament will be exposed.

The bases for the historical, dramatic, and theatrical analysis which
constitutes Part Two of the study were chosen because they complement
rather than duplicate those found in Part One. They also avoid, for the
most part, the concerns of previous works on the Neidhart plays.

Ultimately, the purpose of this study is to say what hasn't yet been
said about the Neidhart plays of the Late Middle Ages.

R. S. Crane, The Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry
(Toronto, 1953), pp. 184-185.

PART ONE

THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
NE ID HART PLAYS.

CHAPTER ONE
The Neidhart Plays as Social Documents

This chapter will establish and discuss that portion of the late
medieval world view which is implicit in the Neidhart plays. It will
be shown that this world view, or definition of the situation as it
will be referred to hereafter, while not a particularly realistic
one, functioned to inculcate, integrate, and validate social value
sets. The analysis which follows will identify the social message
of the Neidhart plays and establish its relationship to the real social
situation in which the plays existed.

The analytic method employed here is derived from the structural
approach to the study of culture devised, for the most, by the French
anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss . In a collection of essays entitled
Structural Anthropology, L^vi-Strauss describes his heuristic structural
approach as being concerned "... primarily with universals, that is

the basic social and mental processes of which cultural institutions

2
are the concrete external projections or manifestations." The

design for cultural analysis put forward by Levi-Strauss represents a

departure from traditional ethnographic-historical culture studies.

Vv'illiam R. Bascom, "The Four Functions of Folklore" in The Study of
Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes (Englewood, N. J., 1965), pp. 292-29Tr

2lAi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. ix.

^Ibid. , pp. 14-16.

14

15

To better understand the basis of the analytic method employed in this
chapter, therefore, the following comparison of the goals of the struc-
tural anthropologist and the historian is offered.

The issue can thus be reduced to the relationship between
history and ethnology in the strict sense. We propose to show
that the fundamental difference between the two disciplines is
not one of subject, of goal, or of method. They share the same
subject, which is social life; the same goal, which is a better
understanding of man; and, in fact, the same method, in which
only the proportion of research techniques varies. They differ,
principally, in their choice of complementary perspectives:
history organizes its data in relation to conscious expressions
of social life, while anthropology proceeds by examining its
unconscious foundations.

In the study being presented here, the motifs and events of the
literature provide tlie raw data from which the aforementioned "universals"
are derived. These motifs and events form what Levi-Strauss calls gross
constituent units or mythemes. The true building blocks of myth,
however, are found in the "bundles" or categories in which the mythemes
exist. The structure of the myth or dramatic work is determined by the
relationship which exists between those categories.

Procedurally, to establish mythic structure in the manner under-
taken in this chapter, it is necessary, first, to reduce the work or
v;orks to mythemes." Secondly, the mythemes are displayed in a matrix
which is generated horizontally by the narrative line of the plays'
development, and vertically, by the categories of mythemes. Thirdly,

"^Ibid. , p. 18
^Ibid_. , p. 211.
Ibid. , p. 212.
■^Ibid. , pp. 215-216.

16

tlio categories are labeled in such a way that the fourth step, a state-

Q

ment of relationship between the categories, is possible.

If the analysis of the works is restricted to the sociological
viewpoint, the most difficult step is to determine which portion of the
detailed business of a play or myth is socially significant. That dif-
ficulty increases if the work is culturally and/or temporally distant
from the analyst. For instance, if the script calls for a certain
group of characters, say peasants, to dance, a decision must be reached in
terms of whether that dance is a simple interlude between episodes or
whether it is, in fact, an elaborate parody of the dance of the higher
social class, the aristocracy. Of course, it could be both. The value
of structural analysis from a cultural or social viewpoint, therefore, is
directly proportional to the knowledge the analyst has of the subject
culture.

The process of distributing the mythcmcs in a two-dimensional
m.atrix (Step Two) is begun by placing the mytheme first encountered in
the narrative in the upper left hand of the matrix. The next mytheme is
placed to the right of the first unless it is found to be in the same
category, in which case it would be placed below the initial similar
mytheme. The rest of the mythemes are treated in a like fashion until
they are distributed throughout the matrix. The third step consists of
labeling the vertical columns within the matrix. The labels must permit
a general statement concerning the relationship of the clusters.

Ilie fourth step in the analysis involves the formulation of a

^bid.

17

statement I'clative to the relationship between the clusters of signifi-
cant events. In this step, maintenance of a consistent analytical
staiidpoint is vital to tlie production of useful information. Ifliile,
conceivably, it may be possible to discover psychologically and philo-
sophically significant patterns among the clusters as well as those which
are purely sociological, the mixture of the three in one statement of
relationship will confuse rather than illuminate analysis.

The pNleidhart dramas lend themselves to the kind) of structural
analysis outlined above inasmuch as the narrative is traditional and,
of the four variations of the central myth represented in the plays, at
least one of the plays is long enough and repetitious enough to disclose
the underlying structure.

The first cluster of mythically significant events in the Neidhart

plays is the salute or vaunt. The salute is the verbal expression of

the status relationship between the speaker and his auditor. The vaunt

differs from the salute in that it is usually said prior to some form

of aggressive behavior. For example, a knight in the Lesser Neidhart

proclaims :

I am a young strong knight.
I am so filled with gall
To fight with them is my fancy.
I'll strike the four rude peasants
At both their heels and heads
So they lie before me like split logs.
(227, 195, 13)^

^References in tlie text to specific lines in the St. Paul, Lesser
Neidhart, and Greater Neidhart will be followed, first, by the page number
in the appendiSTon which the line appears, then by a margin number which
corresponds to the source page, and, finally, by the line number. Refer-
ences to the Sterzing Scenario will consist of the page and margin numbers
since m.ost of the speeches in that work are incomplete.

18

Tlie St. Paul play opens v;ich the Proclaniator ' s salute to the

ladies and gentlemen in the audience. Jn turn, tlie Duchess salutes

Neidhart, and Neidhart, after finding the violet, salutes the Ducliess.

The Great ei' Neidhart play begins witl: a similar salute or direct address:

Princes, counts, so be you;
Lords, kniglits, and noble heirs.
Also shopkeepers, who can handsomely
Affect a high fashion.

And therefore be v/ell born.
Cl52, 393, 6)

In the Lesser Neidhart all but a few lines involve the use of the
vaunt. Moreover, t'ne same vaunts are heard in tlie St er zing Scenario
prior to the tournament between the kniglits and peasants. The i;i.portance
of tliis mytheme is evidenced by botli its elaboration and frequency of
occurance.

The next two categories of mythemes include a series of highly

repetitious events which expose the diametric opposition of the knights

and the peasants. The dance scenes in the Greater Neidhart are the best

exam.ple of this structural element. First, after a series of gracious

invitations to dance, the knights and the maidens dance the courtly

round. Immediately afterward, the peasants enter tlie playing area and,

after much cruder invitations to participate, thoy do a grotesque version

of the same dance. In contrast to the kuiglits v.'ho win the hearts of

their beloved maidens witli courtly discourse, the peasants charm tlieir

serving maids with lewd suggestions. I Other scones and speeches confirm

this contrast between the fortuiics and characteristics of tlie two statuses.

For example, in the Greatci'_Nej.dhn7;t_ play, Lucifer notes that:

They (the peasants) diminish

The nobles every day.

The peasants rise

And the kniglithood falls

As you have just been told.

(200, 439, 31)

19

He continues:

But from this day
On the earth

There shall be no proper peace
Between the peasants and the knights.
(202, 441, 21)

Similarly, the stage directions in the Sterzing Scenario call for
a series of peasant-kniglit physical confrontations. Thus, the diametric
opposition of the two statuses is expressed in physical terms as well as
literarily.

The next structurally significant cluster of events are the repeti-
tious cases of mistaken identity or misjudgements. These include
Neidhart's act of mistaking feces for a violet. In one instance, he
is accused by a courtly maiden of being unable to "tell a turd from a
violet" (225, 195, 5), while others accuse him of playing a joke on the
Duchess. In either case, he is guilty of poor judgement. The peasants,
in turn, are equally unable to estimate their situation correctly. Indeed,
Neidhart deceives them time and again. In the Sterzing Scenario he
deceives them by posing as a peasant, while in the Greater Neidhart
the peasants mistake him for a sword sharpener, a monk, and finally for
a fallen nobleman who would be their ally. In the monastery sequence
of the latter play, the peasants don't even know who they themselves are.
Similarly, in the Lesser Neidhart play, on one occasion the peasants mis-
took Neidhart for a doctor inasmuch as "Once at a fair/ . . . /he/ sold
us a salve/ UTiich made our bellies swell" (228, 196, 4). It is clear
that peasants and knights share this inability to make sound judgements.

In contrast to tlie cluster of significant incidents involving lack
of judgement on the part of both the knights and peasants, the Duke and

20
Duchess appear to be fully capable of accurate discrimination. T'ney
weigh and balance evidence pertaining to any concern and make just and
reasonable decisions. For example, it is tlie Duke or Duchess who consider
Neidhart's merits or apparent lack of them and first condemn, and tlien
forgive, Iiim. Proof of the discrimination which inheres in, or is at-
tributed to, the ducal court is provided by the fact that not even a
decision about the propriety of conducting courtly love is left to the
knights; they must appeal to the court for a decision (171, 404, 15),
An instance whicli clearly reveals the contrasting jural autliority of
the Duke occurs wlien the peasants bring suit against Neidhart for the
injury of two of their company. The Duke rules against them because of
their obvious bias, stating.

Gentlemen, I tell you thus.

You have a great hate and envy for him.

You love him not a wit.

You liave done him much evil.

(192, 429, 10)

In essence, the mytheme revealed above involves the opposition of
the landed aristocracy and the peasant and knight statuses. The last of
the structurally significant cluster of events is that which involves
"binding legs to wood." In all of the plays, reference is made to the
mutilations of peasant's legs. In the St. Paul, Greater Neidhart, and
Sterzing Scenerio, the mutilated legs are immediately replaced with wooden
prosthetic devices. In the Lesser Neidhart, Engelmair, the peasant chief-
tain who is Neidhart's principle rival, incongruously enters on stilts
(stelzen = stilts and/or prosthetic legs). The importance of this peculiar
practice as an element' in the covert structural message is undeniable.
There are more than ten separate references to binding peasants to wood;
moreover, tlie actual or threatened mutilations occur at pivotal points

21

in the dramatic narrative. For instance, the last line of the St. Paul •-'

reads: "As forfeit you must leave a leg here/ And go home on stilts"

(161, 370, 57). In the otlier three plays, the mutilation of the peasants

is tlie pivot point about which Ncidhart's fortunes turn. For instance,

in the Greater Neidhart both the fifth knight and Lucifer gloat over

this peculiar punishment which Neidhart metes out to the peasants.

The Fifth Knight. . . . Neidhart was not happy
;\nd he contrived so
Tliat he punished them well.
Thus he broke

Thirty-two of their left legs.
They must without exception
Creep on stilts and crutches.
(187, 424, 5)

Lucifer. They/tliepeasants/ say: I never thought

He would make a full thirty-two cripples.

The importance of this mytheme in the plays is confirmed by the
fact that the legend of Neidhart Fuchs contains this incident and, in
addition, the legend manuscript has wood cuts depicting the scene immediately
after the mutilation.

The matrix formulated from the six clusters of mythically significant
events found in the Neidhart plays is presented in Figure 1. A label has
been provided at the bottom of each file of mythemes in the matrix to
indicate the significance of that file.

In the matrix, tlie highly repetitious vaunts and salutes have been
interpreted as an expression of an elaborate concern for status (see the
foot of file one). Witli respect to the term status, it sociologically
indicates a particular position within a social structure. In modern

Felix Bobertag, ed. , Narrenbuch in Deutsche National Litteratur, XI
(Stuttgart, 1885), 189.

22

FIGURE ONE

Vaunts+

and

Salutes

Courtly
Dances

Ne.idhart +
covers the
violet

Peasant
dances

Peasant*
defecates
on violet

Feces+ Duchess+
mistaken condemns
for violet Neidhart

Knights+

attack

peasants

Peasants

attack

knights

Neidliart

mistaken

for

someone

else

Legs +
bound
to wood

Peasant*
suit
before
Duke

Engelmair"*
is killed

Duke or
Duchess
pardons
Neidhart

Neidhart*
is killed

Great Knights and peasants
concern opposed and inversely
with related in fortunes
status and desirable

characteristics

Inability Facility The

to make to make par^acea

sound sound

judgements judgements

*Appears in but one version
+Appears in all versions

23

law, and in societies which are organized into estates, a status
is defined by a set of rights and obligations. Since the particular
rights and obligations of a status were to a great extent locally
defined in the Middle Ages, a vaunt or salute which identified the origin
of the speaker, as wlien a peasant announced he was Mayr von Prunnan, told
the audience not only w]io_ the individual was but what he was.

The second and third files of the matrix express the differences and
inverse relationship which was thought to exist between the statuses
knight and peasant. In each play, these differences are made manifest
by word and deed. Instances which best illustrate the polarity of the

two statuses can be found in the Greater Neidhart play and the Sterzing

12

Scenerio. In the former, Engelmair, the peasant chief, dies and the play

ends with a strong statement of Neidhart 's good fortune. In the latter play,
Neidhart dies and presumably the peasants can proceed with their festival
without further aggravation. The idea that whatever helps a peasant m^ust
hurt a knight and vice versa is clearly and profoundly expressed.

In the fourth and fifth files of the matrix, a set of contrasting
motifs is presented. Essentially, the peasants and knights consistently
make poor judgements while the Duke and Duchess make accurate judgements
with facility. It should be remembered also that the blatant stupidity
of the peasants is matched in degree, if not kind, by Neidhart 's mistake

Concerning the confusing history of the term status, see Paul
Bohannon, Social Anthropology (New York, 1963), p. 155, 165-166.

12

Texts of both plays are vague about both deaths. At one point

Engelm.air is pronounced dead (216, 457, 31J ; at another he seems to be

recovering (215, 45S. 15). In the Sterzing Scenario, the directions indicate

the actor playing Neidhart leaves the barrel before it is hacked open

(251, 262), but subsequent lines seem to suggest that the illusion of his

dem.ise v;as intended.

24

13

with tlie violet which makes liiin an extremely ludicrous character.

Vac Duke and Duchess, on tlic otlicr hand, issue their decisions with
gravity and decorum. Although mythemes two and tliree show the knights
and peasants being opposed, mytliemes four and five indicate they possess
a common incapacity -- the poor judgement which distinguished them from
the Duke and Duchess.

The last of the matrix categories is labeled the panacea. This
label was deemed appropriate inasmuch as, invariably, the solution to the
problems in the plays involves liacking off a peasant's leg and then binding
him to wood. The insistent quality of this mytheme is as great as it is
puzzling. A.S early as the time of the historical character Neidhart von

Reuental (early thirteenth century) , reference is made to knocking peasants

14
off their stilts. After the relationships between the other categories

are m.ade clear, an extended discussion of this motif will be provided.

The process of providing a statement concerning the relationship of

the mytheme categories requires more qualification than do the proceeding

three steps in the structural analysis. l\liile it is reasonable to assume

that two individuals equally well-versed in the history of the subject

culture could arrive at the same configuration of mythemes within tlie

matrixes, there is unfortunately no assurance tliat tlieir interpretation

of tlie data thus derived will be the same. A case in point can be seen

in Levi-Strauss ' s model analysis of the Oedipus myth. In his analysis of

that myth, the fourth and final colusnn of tlie matrix contains proper names

13

This scene becomes quite amusing in ilans Sachs' play on Neidhart.

This sixteenth century version ridicules all of the statuses included in

the traditional narrative including the Duke and Duchess.

1 1

Moriz Haupt, Neidhart 's Licder, 2nd ed. with revisions by Edmxind

Wiessner (Leipzig, 1925), p. 104.

25

which all refer to lameness (Labdaoes, Laios, and Oedipus). Levi-Strauss
interprets this as the "persistance of the autochthonius nature of man."
Without debating the specific merits of this interpretation, one can

point out that this same motif would be regarded by the late British

16

mythologist, Lord Raglan, as the ritual wounding of the God King.

When one assumes Raglan's point of view, an equally consistent statement
concerning the relationship of the mytheme categories of the Oedipus
myth is possible. The problem generated by the possibility of two
different, but valid, statements based on the same data is that of
ac'nieving a cogent statement concerning the relationship of the various
structural elements with some degree of certainty regarding its correctness.

It may be that judgements concerning the relationship of matrix
categories cannot be made with absolute certainty by anyone and that, at
best, only a tentative explanation can be offered. It seems reasonable
to assume, however, that the probability of achieving a correct state of
the relationship of structural elements within an artifact or work of
art is enhanced in direct proportion to tlie genei'al knowledge of the
culture possessed by the analyst. In addition, the validity of the
analytical data can be enhanced by consistency of the investigator's
approach. As a consequence, this study employs a strict sociological
approach in the hope of yielding a strictly sociological structural
statement. In any case, it behooves the analyst to explain carefully
why alternate interpretations do not fit.

15

'herd Raglan, The Hero (London, 1949), p. 192

L(Cvi-Strauss , Structural Anthropology, p. 215,
16,

26

The follov.'ing identification of the relationships between tlie
structural elements takes cognizance of the above considerations. Con-
sidering these relationships, it vsrould appear reasonable that the elaborate
concern for statijs (file one) is caused by the paradoxical social situation
suggested in files two through four. The other alternative, however, is
that the relationship between file one and the two pairs of oppositions
was reflexive. Elaborate concern with status may have exacerbated and
widened the differences between the statuses.

If file one suggests simply that a problem exists, files two through
four define the nature of tlie problem in the form of a paradox. Those
who are absolutely divided by the inverse relationship of their personal
qualities and fortunes are, nevertheless, united in that neitlier possesses
the facility to pake accurate judgements. An alternate statement concerning
the relationship of files two through four miglit be that the two statuses
are divided because they lack the ability to make sound judgements. The
final file, number five, contains the solution to the problem defined in
files two through four. If the problematic metaphor is abandoned, it could
be said that "binding legs to vrood" is the resolution to the situation
described in the previous files.

Before any comprehensive statement can be made about the structure
of the works as a whole, the meaning of the last file must be decoded.
Miile the meanings of the other files are relatively straiglitforward, the
process of "binding legs to wood" appears to have no meaning at all. Of
course, if the paradox were solvable by logical or sociological means, it
is doubtful that a m,ytii would liave been generated. The search for meaning,

27

thcrefoi'e, can only be directed toward v;hat inevitably must be an un-
reasonable, but mythically satisfying, solution to the problem.

The mytliic source of satisfaction of that problem may well inliere
in a system of symbolism found in the plays. Each of the social statuses
have symbolic analogues which are interjected into the formulation of
the narrative much as algebraic symbols are in an equation. In passing,
it might be noted that this interpolation of symbols for men creates puns
of dubious humor. The first and most clear union of a symbol and a
status is that involving feces and peasant. Manure is the substance
with which the peasants worked. Manure, in medieval Germany, was an
extremely valuable commodity (which was nevertheless held in very low
esteem). Such was the case with the peasants. The second symbol is the
violet which is said to be the judge or proof of spring. It is termed
"powerful" and "noble" (178, 413, 28). Elsewhere, it is seen as proof
that winter is passed (176, 411, 1). By virtue of these attributes, it
is the symbolic analogue of the Duke and Duchess. It has power, pres-
tige, and jural authority. It stands as the mediator between polar
opposites. The last status, the knight, is less certainly represented
by a symbol. Of the syiribols available, "wood" seems to be the most

logical. The sacred grove and the framm (wooden javalin) were associated

17
with the ancient initiation rites of the young warriors. Furthermore,

in the plays the peasants attack a wood post to show what they would do

if they caught Neidhart (219, 462, 1).

1 7
Tacitus Germania ix. 2. xii. 1; Annales ii. 12. iv. 73; Historiae iv. 14.

28
The aforementioned symbols are integrated into the plot via a
series of puns or tlirougli partially congruent interrelationsliip v;ith the
"real" elements of the play. IVlien tlie feces is dropped under Neidhart's
lielmet, he is receiving his feudal due. In symbolic respects, the peasant
was giving himself. I'vlien Neidliart observes that a great blow can separate
one from one's ankle (217, 459, 15) he may be saying, metapliorical ly,
tliat one can be deprived of one's progeny. That possibility is suggested
by the fact that, in German, the word for leg is bein. Bein also means
bone. Further, there is clear evidence that the Germans recorded kin by

bone terminology. Colaterals extended from the neck to fingertips and

18

there is some evidence that lineal relatives were reckoned vertically.

If the term bein was associated with kin ties and various bones of the
leg represented one's progeny, tlien cutting one's leg (bein) would connote

disrupting one's kin ties (which at least among the Norse would be tanta-

19

mount to enslavement). Viewed in this light, the act of "binding to

wood" would homeopathically oblige the bound peasant to tlic kniglit wliom
the wood symbolized.

Pursuing the study of symbolic integration further, it should be
noted that although the late medieval society was not organized around
actual kinship ties, fictive kin terms were used to indicate close coali-
tion. Regenbart is called Vetter, a v;ord wliich once meant any male

1 Q

Bohannon, Social Anthropology, p. 127. The French spoke of "charnal
brotherhood," see Marc Bloch, Feudal Society (Chicago, 1961), p. 124. A
grandson was an enkel which is cognate to the English "uncle." Occationally
a grandchild was called diehte_r (upper thigh), G. S. Ghurye, Family and Kin
in Indo-Furope Culture (Bombay, 1962), p. 234.

19

Frederick Seebolim, Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law (London, 1911),

p. 266.

29

relative sprung from ego's paternal grandparents ,2*^ or Gefater (godfatlier) .
Moreover, godfatliers were thought to be able to transmit character
qualities to their godchildren. Neidhart is called Oheim by his followers
(Honored Uncle, once reserved for ego's mother's brother). ■'■

The disruption of the fictLve kin coalitions and the subsequent
binding of the peasant to the knight solves the paradox posed by the
plays' elem.ents. It must be remembered that though the peasants were
not bound to Neidhart, both the peasants and the knights v\?ere bound to
the Duke, hence the Duke has the dual attributes of power and privilege
and the concomitant ability to make sound judgements. If the knights
and peasants were to unite, however, their union would possess all of the
qualities needed to "hold court."

A statement concerning the structural meaning of the Neidhart
plays now becomes possible. Elaborate concern with status was caused by
the paradoxical social situation in which peasants were absolutely opposed
to knights. The peasants and knights were alike, however, in that they
both were opposed to Dukes. Tliat opposition was fostered by the fact
that neither tlie knights or peasants could lay claim to being a whole
status. The solution to the paradox, a solution couched in symbolism,
is that the two half statuses (knights and peasants) might unite and thus
achieve the possibility of a full round of existence (subsistence and
privilege) .

It was suggested in the introduction to this portion of the analysis
that the definition of the social situation which is implicit in the

^^Ghurye, Fam.ily and Kin, pp. 235-239.
^^Ibid. , p. 236.

30

Neidhart plays was not realistic. In fact, it bears nothing but a tan-
gential relationship to the actual situation found in Germany in the Late
Middle Ages. Since myths and other imaginative narratives are often
thought to directly reflect the social situation in which they exist,
some attention must be given to the factors which cause individuals and
societies to adopt patently false notions about their circumstances.
That information will make it be possible to discover why the aforemen-
tioned panacea was couched in symbolism, and establish the precise
relationship of the plays to their environment.

The mythopoeic and dramatic impulses operative on the social level
have analogues at the level of the individual. People act out their
illusory definitions of the situation. Reasons for the adoption of a
false definition of a given situation are suggested by the results of a
recent experimental study by contemporary sociologist Peter McHugh who
deliberately exposed subjects to a disorienting social experience.
Although the subjects were given an idea of what was to occur, in the
course of the experiment it became abundantly clear to a number of them
that what was happening did not coincide with their expectations.
Specifically, McHugh noted the following patterns of behavior:

1. After the disorienting experience, the anomic behavior of the
subjects fell into three categories. The first was characterized by a

feeling of powerlessness , the second by a feeling of being out of place,

22
and the third by a feeling of meaninglessness.

22

Defining the Situation (Indianapolis, 1968), p. 120.

31

2. The protocol of those experiencing feelings of powerlessness
and of being out of place were orderly. Feelings of meaninglessness were
absolutely disruptive. "^-^

3. Nearly one-third of the subjects experiencing anoinia reinvoked
their original definition of the situation. Over half of those experiencing
the meaningless variety of anomia reinvoked the original definition.

This would indicate that orderly behavior on the part of the individual
is dependent upon his ability to give a coherent account of his surround-
ings. The trueness or falseness of his particular definition makes
no difference. If the individual is to function, he must construct an
integrative rationale. It is equally important to notice that there seems
to be some propensity to rcinvoke the original assessment of the situation.

On the sociatal level, analogous processes occur when the society
as a whole undergoes change. Clyde Kluckholn points out that myth and
ritual are devices by which cultures adapt and adjust to stress.-^ Myth
supplies a rationale for, and dramatization (ritual) acts out, the con-
flicts and the solutions which are typical of a society.

Although myth and ritual are related in the above-mentioned sense,

9/:
one is not the cause of the other. Dramatization has its ovm reason

for being. In terms of the case materials of this study, the legend of

Jeidhart Fuchs provided a rationalization for the social order, or dis-

2 3 Ibid.

. P-

103

2'^Ibid.

. P-

119

25"Myth and Rituals," p. 7i
26ibid. , p. 56.

32

order in tliis case, of fiftcentli century (icrmany. The plays rooted in

that legend would, essentially, act cut and tliereby reinforce the organizing

principle of the late medieval world view. An exhaustive cross-cultural

study of initiation ceremonies conducted by Frank W. Young would suggest

that it is quite in order to assign a role or function such as this to

these fifteenth century dramatizations. Specifically, Young's study

concludes :

Dramatization is the communication strategy typically
employed by solidarity groups in order to maintain tlieir
higlily organized but all the more vulnerable definitions of the
situation. ■

27

Dramatization, then, acts in defense of the status quo. The
institutional state of solidarity, and its rationalization in the form
of a myth, are m.aintained by dramatization. The Neidhart plays are an
instance which suggests a corollary proposition, to wit, dramatization
is the communication strategy typically employed by societies in order
to maiivtain a minimum level of organization of their definition of the
situation. A dramatic imperative exists at both organizational extremes,
The highly organized solidarity group, and the poorly organized insti-
tution or society, use drama to intensify the mythic and social bonds
which characterize them. Tlie anomic social situation requires drama-
tization to establish or reestablish a minimum level of social-
psycliological coherence.

The necessity for a coherent account of one's environment and the
function of myth and dramatization in filling that need explains, in

^ '' I iiiti at ion Ce remonics : A Cross Cu 1 tural Study of Status Dramatiza-
:ion (Indianapolis, 1965), p. 3.

33

sm.

part, why the previously identified panacea was couclicd in symbolist
Open advocacy of a knight-peasant union would obviously alarm the aris-
tocracy and perhaps cause the advocate to lose his head. It might be
posited, also, that the major impetus toward tiaat symbolism came from a
less obvious, but more compelling, set of circumstances.

In the period in which the Neidhart legend and plays evolved, union
of the knight and the peasant statuses was socially inconceivable. Hildi
HUgle, in Per deutsche Bauer im Mittelalter, knows of but three instances

in which knight-peasant coalitions occurred. These associations, 'which

28
were brief, occurred in Alsace (1336), Gotha (1391), and Worms (1431).

Interestingly enough, these unions were not directed against the plays'

tliird status (the Duke), but against the new middle class in the cities.

These instances to the contrary, kniglit-peasant associations were

generally impossible; the only conceivable way in which a peasant could

be united with the knight was via the traditional feudal bond. Yet

in the Late Middle Ages, this too was impossible because there had been a

shift in the major economic and political patterns of organization. A

29
transition had been made from fief to indenture. The nexus of social

interaction was placed in the market-place of the cities, rather than

30
the courts of the lesser nobility. Exploitation of the peasants con-
tinued with as much vigor as in former days, but rent and taxation were

^^In Sprache und Dichtung, XLII (Stuttgart, 1885), 2-3.

29

Bryce D. Lyon, From Fief to Indenture (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), p. 1

James IVestfall Thompson, Economic and Social History of Europe in
the Later Middle Ages (New York,"T960), pp. 126-130.

34

the new means of achieving the ancient end. Furthermore, the fundamental
mode of social organization was shifting from the estate system, which
was composed of legally defined statuses with definite sets of rights and
obligations, to a class system. In the latter, theoretically at least,
all men would have the same rights before the law. They were grouped,
however, by equally theoretic differences in traits. The panacea con-
tained in the plays was, in fact, an impossible solution.

The solution which the panacea offered was false. More than that,
the problem it purported to solve was unrealistic in both form, and content.
The oversimplified and nearly mechanical relationships between the subject
statuses did not in fact exist. Moreover, the central issue of the plays
was, in itself, an evasion of the principal, and very real, problem which
faced the age.

The falseness of the Neidhart definition of the situation is best
seen in the simplistic sets of social relationships it sets forth. First
of all, the fortunes of the knights and peasants were not really unalter-
ably opposed. Since the economy of the whole culture was still largely
agrarian based, what was bad for a peasant was for the most part bad
for everyone. Peasants and laborers were so scarce that a law was
passed forbidding people to be idle.^^ The demand for proiiuctive
people was so great that the laborers, flattered by all of this attention,
attempted to establish the first five-day work week. "Montag ist Sontag's
bruder,"-^'- as the saying went. It is certain that knights did not go

31lbid. , p. 390.
32ibid. , p. 391.

33
about needlessly mutilating peasants in sucli hard times.

A further indication of this inaccurate definition of the situation

can be found when the actual power and privileges of the ducal courts

are considered. The serene Duke, who possessed power and prestige in

contrast to the half statuses of knight and peasant, did not actually

possess or enjoy the authority which was his ancient right. The cities,

and the city patriciate, the upper-middle class, challenged the authority

of the aristocracy at every point. In fact, the idea that the serious

social conflict in this era was between knight and peasant is itself

an evasion of the central and fundamental problem facing fourteenth and

fifteenth century Germany. The real battles were between the upper and

7.A 35

lower classes of the cities-^^ and between the cities and the aristocracy.

The fact that the plays put forth a type conflict and a type solution
which bore no relationship to the real vicissitudes besetting the audiences
stems, in a circular fashion, from the chaotic and insoluble nature of
those same circumstances. The actual situation was, as Strayer and
Munro say, too chaotic to describe; hence, a totally unrealistic defin-
ition of the situation in the form of the Neidhart legend. By virtue of
this definition, life could have meaning and the possibility of orderly
behavior could be assumed. The dramatization of this legend provided
confirmation and intensification of the weak bonds formed by the demon-
strably oversimplified and largely false definition which was implicit
within it.

33

It should not be assumed that peasants were spared the ravages of

the wars which were constantly being waged. Indeed, whole villages

disappeared in the worst of these conflicts. There was, however, no

systematic persecution of the peasant as a class.

•^^J. K'. Thoinpson, Economic and Social History, pp. 398-414.

•^^Gcoffrey EarrHclough, The Origins of ^'odern Germany (Oxford, 1949)

36

It is interesting to note in passing that the behavior of both
Neidhart and the peasants falls within the anomic categories posited by
McKugh. Neidhart, who is privileged but without power, assaults the
peasants and bewails his situation. The experimental subjects, who had
comparable feelings, reacted similarly to their situation. The
peasants on the other hand are powerful but without privilege. They
feel out of place, as well they might since economics and their own
ambitions had moved them from their customary social situation. They
assault Neidhart as an individual, rather than the knighthood as a class

or the situation per se. This is precisely the kind of behavior McHugh

37
discovered was typical of subjects experiencing feelings of alienation.

In conclusion, it has been shown that the Neidhart plays are socially
significant works of dramatic art even though they bear but a tangential
relationship to the true social situation in Germany during the last
portion of the Middle Ages. The structural analysis of the plays reveals
a covert, but genuine, anxiety about status. It also disclosed the nature
of the problem as the people of that era saw it. A symbolic remedy, which
in fact was no remedy at all, provided a solution, albeit removed by one
level of abstraction, to the paradoxical situation defined in the mid-
portion of the structure of the plays. The relationship of the plays
to their environment has been shown to be one in which the dramatization
functioned to confirm and intensify the tenuous organization of the
society's order-producing definition of the situation.

•^^iMciiugh, Defining the Situation, p. 117.
^■^Ibid.

CHAPTER TIVO
The Origins of the Conflict

In the previous cluipter, the social message of the Neidhart plays
v;as described as an unrealistic and over-simplified evasion of the
central problems confronting fifteenth century Germany. Even the
conflict of tlie plays, though not the central issue of the age, was
shown to be much more tlian a senseless battle between arbitrary foes.
Instead, it was an on-going quarrel which had its roots in the High
Middle Ages, some two hundred years before.

The pui"pose of this chapter is to expose the origins of the
conflict presented in the Neidhart plays. First, it will be shown that
though owning land was a prerequisite for achieving an esteemed status
among the primitive Germans, tilling the land was considered repreliensible,
Secondly, tlie structure of the society in which Neidhart von Reuental,
the thirteenth century poet whose life and times became the source of
the Legend of Neidhart Fuclis, will be examined. Finally, the wide range
of contemporary attitudes toward knight, peasant, and duke will be
exposed and then contrasted with the particula.r view expressed by
Neidhart von Reuental.

Primitive Germ.ans observed two principles of land tenure and use
which bear directly on tiie social patterns of the High Middle Ages.

37

38

First, holding an alloc!, that is a piece of land which is held in absolute

independence, was deemed necessary if an individual was to be a free

adult. Second, to exploit the land by tilling it was considered absolutely

reprehensible. 'I'hese two principles are not as paradoxical as they

appear at first. The primitive Germans had a mixed economy, one that

combined hunting, gathering, and agriculture. The first specialization

of labor which occurred in that culture relegated the task of hunting to

the warriors, and farming to the women, old men, and slaves.

Since hunting was the economic activity of a warrior, and farming

was the economic activity of women and despised men, it is not surprising

that a situation such as that described by Tacitus (93 A.D.) developed.

I'/lien tlie state has no war to manage, the German mind
is sunk in sloth. The chase does not afford sufficient
employment. Tlie time is passed in sleep and gluttony. The
intrepid warrior, wlio in the field braved every danger,
becomes in time of peace a listless sluggard. The management'
of his house and lands he leaves to the women, to the old men',
and the infirm part of his family. He himself lounges in stupid
repose, by a wonderful diversity of nature, exliibiting in the
same man tlie most inert aversion of labor, and the fiercest
principle of action.

Tacitus not only exposed the existing division of labor in primitive

Germany, but suggested something of the warrior's attitude toward things

domestic." Despite the fact farming was considered an odious occupation,

owning an allod was the only way in which an individual could becom.e a

free adult male. It should be noted, liowcver, ownership of land did not

Tacitus German i a xv. 1.

'^Since, in that period, German men revered their women to a degree
wl\ich astonished Romans, one can presume the association of slaves with
farming v,'as what made it an odious occupation. Ibid, vii. 2.

39

connote, as it does now, the ability to dispose of that land as one
pleased. The primitive German land owner was also, and inseparably,
the head of an extended family. Each of his children and nephoAvs had
a birthright which was a non-partible share of the allod. The landowner
did not covet his position because he loved any intrinsic quality of
land, but because as the head of an extended family he was its mund
(spokesman) at tribal assemblies. Political power was thus associated
with the familial heirarchy and the family was part and parcel of a
homestead.

The primitive German male who had not yet come into his inheritance
from his father or elder brother was a gwas , cniht or knecht , depending
on the linguistic region in which he lived; all meant "initiated boy"
and, ultimately, all came to mean vassel or knight. With respect to
the young warriors in that society, it can be said they were respected;
indeed they could become a graf (count or colonel) or a herzog (duke
or general) in the military organization (commitatus) . Significantly,
however, the warrior was not a part of the system which governed the
inner and outer kindreds and it was this fact that fostered his desire
to own land.

Some thousand years later, during the period called the High Middle
Ages, the feudal social system had, to varying degrees in different

3
Edward Jenks, Law and Politics in the Middle Ages (New York, 1908),

p. 78. For a survey of what was known in general about the Germans from

the time of Caesar to the time of Tacitus, see E. A. Thompson, The Early

Germans (Oxford, 1965). Limited generalizations are drawn from diverse

and later sources in Seebohm, Tribal Custom.

Norman F. Cantor, Medieval History (New York, 1963), p. 121.

40

places, replaced the land/kiii social structure. Feudalism is usually
considered either "a group of political and legal institutions, as a
system of decentralized government--public power in private hands. . . ,"^
or as a complex social organization of a whole culture.^ Under either
definition, one is tempted to see the salient feature of feudalism as
being its relatively stable heirarchical structure. Wiile the feudal
period of the High Middle Ages was in fact relatively stable, the
principle of its organization involved two dramatically opposed considera-
tions. These two opposing elements created wide variations in organiza-
tional configurations from country to country, and in the case of Germany,
from district to district.

The status of individuals who played roles within the feudal system
was simultaneously that of vassal and overlord. The interests or view-
points typically attending these statuses were diametrically opposed.
The overlord attempted to make the land under his jurisdiction produce
warriors. He gave to his vassal a precarium, a fief of land, in return
for service in warfare. On the other hand, the vassal's interests were
best served when he could secure an indisputable title to the land in
return for as few services as possible. The dynamic quality of this
relationship is apparent to those W'ho are acquainted with the tensions
inherent in buying and selling in a marketplace. There was, however,
another powerful, but less apparent, stress in this relationship.
The thougiit of giving away land for any reason was alien to the German

^Ibid., p. 238.
^Ibid. , p. 240.

41

mind; it was a Roman custom, whereas the desirability of securing an
allod was time-honored.

In addition to the tensions existing between the dual roles of
vassal and overlord, there was also a formal incongruency. A large
number of the nobility were neither bachelor knights nor kings, conse-
quently, most played the roles of vassal and overlord simultaneously.
It was to one's advantage to have as many vassals as possible, but to

•7

swear fealty to only a single powerful overlord. Tlius , as vassal, the
typical feudal lord attempted to divest himself of obligations, while as
overlord, he tended to encumber as many subordinates as he could with
complex obligations. The feudal system was therefore in a constant
state of disequilibrium.

This dynamic quality of generic feudalism produced as many species
as there were nations, and in Germany, it produced a wide range of
locally defined subspecies. Understanding the social milieu in which
Neidhart von Reuental lived requires some knowledge of these varieties
of feudal organization.

Three distinct patterns of feudal organization evolved in the
Middle Ages. Probably the most successful was that found in Norman
England. There, the king required that all nobles, from lowest knight
to most powerful duke, swear loyalty to him. This created a nation of
vassals committed ultimately to one overlord. In France, prior to the

•7

Ibid . , p. 246. See also Joseph R. Strayer, "The Development of
Feudal Institutions" in Twelfth Century Europe and the Foundations of
Modern Society CMadison, Wise, 1961), pp. 77-88; Sidney Painter, Medieval
Socicry (Ithaca, N. Y., 1951), pp. 11-27.

^James IVestfall Thcm.pson, Feudal Germany (Chicago, 1928), p. 321.

^Cantor, Medieval History, p. 247.

42

ascendency of the Capetian kings (twelfth century), the dominant figure
was the baron. 1'^ The individual castle proprietor was the hub of a be-
wildering variety of feudal ties. For example, William Stern Davis struc-
tures a t>'pical barony of thirteenth century France in which a particularly
successful baron enjoyed the sole allegience of twelve dependent vassals.
That baron, in turn, was the vassal of tvjo dukes, one bishop, and a
neighboring baron. The third pattern of feudal organization found in
Germany requires special attention because of its effect on the life
of Neidhart von Reuental. The central figures in German feudalism
were the dukes and counts. Their sovereignty became so absolute that
one justifiably might say that the extreme social positions in the
feudal heirarchy, those of emperor and simple knight, were all but
excluded from the political organization of the German state. These
territorial princes elected their emperor, rather than an emperor choosing
them as princes. Indeed, these princes often chose to deal directly
with free peasants rather than go through the existing social chain of
command.-'-- During the period when this latter organizational pattern
existed, the emperor could console himself by considering his demesne
and high, if meaningless office, but the poor knight had no office and
only a precarious hold on his fief, if he was fortunate enough to have a
fief. The knight, like the emperor, had the privilege of being noble,
but did not have the substance, political or material, to conduct himself
as a noble.

10

Ibid. , p. 475,

^^Life on a Medieval Barony (New York, 1923), pp. 10-11.

■"•"J. W. Thompson, Feudal Germany, pp. 293-294; Cantor, Medieval
History, pp. 470-472; Barraclough, Origins, p. 143.

43

At this point, one can see the justification for calling the
peasants and knights in the Neidhart plays "half statuses." The lower
knighthood possessed no secure land holdings, yet land was the basis of
power in the Middle Ages. The German peasant, though often eigen (free)
by virtue of his patrimonial allod, was not in a privileged estate.
The third status treated in the plays, the duke, possessed both power
and privilege. Gehard Lenski provides an excellent abstract model which
explains, in part, the triadic relationship of the three statuses. Lenski
suggests there are three factors which affect distribution of goods within
a society: power, privilege and prestige.

Power "--—-=-———-> Prestige
Privilege
As the model indicates, power accounts for privilege and power plus
privilege equals prestige. In the Middle Ages, however, power began as
a Janus- like land/kin meld, later it came to be based on a land/warrior
union, and finally, land and money were vcedded. The prestigious statuses
were those in the privileged estate who controlled both elements of
the power ratio.

The feudal social system described above was one which permitted a
variety of differing attitudes towards the relationship of the statuses.
A sanguine openess and tolerance for difference of opinion characterized
the High Middle Ages -- a condition which was absent in the late m.cdieval
period. The society of the High Middle Ages was one composed of vertically-
oriented strata. These strata, called estates, were distinguished, not

^^Power and Privilege (New York, 1966), p. 45.

44 -
by Lraits, but by customaiy occupations. Thus, it was possible for

the px'iests, artisans, farmers, warriors, and governors to have a full

range of positive and negative feelings tov;ard one anotlier. Since this

period preceded the Inquisition, individuals tended to express themselves

in a relatively free fasl^ion.

Though every estate, from the priesthood to the merchants, received
value laden literary attention during the High Middle Ages, this study
is solely concerned with the attitudes expressed toward the statuses of
knight, peasant, and duke. Uliile at one time or another, each of the
latter three statuses received both praise and blame, the subsequent
examples of attitudes found in the literature of the High Middle Ages
differ greatly from those expressed in the Neidhart plays. Specifically,
these examples indicate that there were no commonly and rigidly held
opinions about the tlirce subject statuses. Knights could be pictured
as evil and crass; peasants could be thought of as being steadfast and
loyal, and dukes and otlier landed aristocrats could be accused of poor
judgement.

In the High Middle Ages, kniglits were not all pictured as loyal,

heroic, and brave but gentle individuals. For example, in the song

Raoul de Cambrai, Raoul, tlie liero, orders that liis tent be pitched in

the church of a defeated city.

You will place my bed before the alter.

You will lodge my hawks on the Golden Crucifix."

In keeping with the period's view or portrayal of knights, Raoul

Leon Gaultier, Chivalry, tr. D. C. Dunning (London, 1965), p. 6,

45

tlien proceeds to rape the nuns in the collocated convent. Raoul, unlike

the legendary Neidhart, loved neither church, women, nor his landed

aristocratic superior. Another reference to the wanton cruelty of a

parvenue knight can be found in Meir Helmbrecht , a piece written in the

middle of the thirteenth century by U'ernher dor Gartenaere. In it, a

robber knight boasts of iiis treatment of the peasants.

I seldom bring the peasants joy

That in our neighborhood are found.

Their children, where I've been around

Eat water-soup that's thin and flat.

I make them suffer more than that!

I quickly press the one's eyes out,

On other's backs I lay about. .»

Across an ants' nest one I stake.

Another's beard I jerking take

■With pincers piecem.eal from his face.

All tliat the peasants have is mine!-'-^

This type of attitude and conduct is in marked contrast to that of
the dramatic figure of Neidhart who, in the plays, ostensibly only
injures the peasants because they have injured him. In any case, the
selections cited above indicate that the people of the Middle Ages could
regard a knight as less than a romantic hero.

It should be noted, also, that in the High Middle Ages the peasant
was not always considered a boorish filthy beast, lie frequently was
depicted as a hard working, simple, but good man whose relationship with
the lord of a manor was an honorable one. Tlie good knight protected the
good peasant and the peasant, in turn, supported the knight. Some of the
period's attitude toward these two statuses was reflected by Hartman von
Aue who, at the beginning of the tliirteenth century, wrote Per arme Heinrich
which describes the knight Heinrich as,

Clair Hcyden Bell, Peasant Life in Old German Hpics (New York, 1931),
p. 70.

46

... a certain knight

In Swabia begotten.

In him there was forgotten,

Of manly virtues, none, in truth.

That any noble in his youth.

To win full praise, must have ...

Later in the piece, a peasant who is Heinrich's ward is pictured

as living in pastoral contentment.

This forest clearing isolated

Was at tlie time still cultivated

By a peasant, freeborn and content,

Ivlio very seldom underwent

Any great discomfort, such

As other peasants suffered much.

Who had worse overlords to bear.

Since these latter did not spare

Them hard exactions or commands

IVhate'er was done by this man's hands

For Heinrich, that appealed to him

As quite enough. He shielded hira

So that he suffered, and his farm.

From no one, violence or harm.

Hence it was , that far around

17
No man so prosperous could be found.

There is an immense difference between this picture of a traditional,

trouble free knight-peasant relationship and the raw acrimony whicli the

statuses display toward each otlaer in the Neidhart plays. Tl:e above

poem also challenges the notion that the only bond that could exist

between knight and peasant was that of lord and man. In the poem, the

peasant's daughter offers up her life in order to cure the knight of a

strange malady. Heinrich, the knight, is so smitten by this gesture

that he marries the young maiden. In fifteenth century Germany, such a

match would liave been unthinkable.

^^Ibid. , p. 93-94.
^''jbid. , p. 100.

47

Since Der Arme Heinrich is doubtless the kindest treatment of
the peasant status in the Middle Ages, it should be noted that it does
not represent the attitude with which the peasants were generally viewed.
A view of peasants which is closer to the modal attitude of the age is
that found in Ruodlieb, a story written by an eleventh century monk.

In this story the whole peasant estate is viewed as "rough and unculti-

18

vated, but full of sturdy thriftiness."

The last of the three statuses to be considered here, the duke,
received the same wide range of treatment by medieval poets. VJliile
some works, such as the Kaiser-Chronik, created a fictive linage which
traced the ancestory of the recently risen Welf family back to the time
of the l^omans, other works contain attacks on the persons and offices
of the middle aristocracy. The bulk of the poets veiled their criticism,
a typical example being Reinhart der Fuchs, a work written about 1180.
This narrative, which bears some resemblance to the Neidhart Fuchs
legend, is an account of a clever fox who is outwitted by small animals,
but who finds it easy to fool the wolf and lion who live in castles.
Landed aristocrats are also repeatedly defeated in the narrative,
Lanzelet, a work translated from the Anglo-Norman about 1200 by Urich
von Zatzikhoven. The hero of the latter story is a magically disinherited
knight who goes about conquering castle proprietors until he finally
discovers and regains his birthright. In other works, such as
Spuchdichtung of Walther von der Vcgelweide, there are direct assaults
on the powerful men in Germany. Walther, incensed by his dismissal from

1 Q

iValshe, Medieval German Literature, p. 54.

19

Kuno Franke, A History of German Literature, 4th ed. (New York,

1901), p. 52.

the ducal court at Viciina and by papal and princely politics, issued
broadsides at a variety of aristocratic targets with little more damage
to himself than an occasional insult. In all, dukes and other princes
were not immune to criticism of their judgement or their characters. Tlie
remote, dignified, and judicious Duke of Austria presented in the Neidliart
plays some several hundred years hence would have appeared in quite a
different liglit in the actual social situation of the High Middle Ages.

In the midst of the wide ranging expressions of attitude toward
kniglits, peasants, and dukes which prevailed during the High Middle Ages
one finds that put forth in the poetiy of Neidhart von Rcuental, That
poetry not only contained the basis for attitudes expressed in the legend
of Neidhart Fuclis, but for attitudes found in the Neidhart plays of the
fourteenth and fifteenth century as well. It will be shown below that
Neidhart 's poetry reflected his personal view of the vicissitudes which
beset the landless German kniglit of tlie High Middle Ages.

Neidhart von Reuental, the knight to whom both the legendary and
dramatic figures can be traced, flourished from 1210 to 1236. He was a
poor knight, dependent upon the patronage of the courts of Bavaria and
Austria. His precarium was pitifully small and not in any way secure.
IValther von der Vogelweide not only knew of him, but knevvr enough of his
poetry to liken it to the croaking of frogs. "-^ Neidhart, unlike the

20

Walshe, Medieval German Literature, pp. 117-120. For more examples

of the wide range of attitudes toward the various statuses in the High
Middle Ages, see Ei'win Gudde, Social Conflicts in Medieval German Poetry
in University of California Publications in Modern Pliilology, XVIII
( BerFel ey7lL9 T-^y; "~

21

IValshe, Medieval German Literature, p. 127.

49

majority of his fellow knightly balladeers, did not write of

unobtainable love and dashing deeds. Rather, he wrote of the very

obtainable love of peasant wenches and of the coarse deeds of their

fathers and lovers. In terms of his subject matter, Neidhart makes

his own best apology.

And now I am. to sing?

The corn sheaf sings each morning

To him who tends a manor.

And Englmair, whom I hate.

Did Fridrauna's mirror break.

How ought 1 behave? 22

His question concerning an appropriate form of behavior was well
taken, indeed, since the forces and conditions in his life were too
complex to provide simple, non-equivocal behavioral guidelines. As
knight, he was confronted by the fact that while the ideas of chivalry
had their source in the early German initiation rites, they had been
refined by tlie French who disdained farming. Uliether or not Neidhart
actually did manual labor- cannot be known for certain, but it is known
that the Norman French invaders of England could not tell a Saxon noble
from a Saxon peasant at harvest time. It may well be that Neidhart 's
hands, which from his viewpoint were meant for grasping swords and
narrow-waisted women, occasionally graced a pitchfork.

To appreciate Neidhart von Reuental's plight, it is essential
to know what imperatives were associated with his status. Ideally, he
had certain rights and obligations which governed his relationships with
others. For instance, the obligations of knighthood were to honor and

■^-Haupt, Neidhart '.s Licder, p. 39.

50

defend the Church, protect the weak, love one's country, to be brave,

to prosecute the infidel, to perform one's feudal duties, to be honest,

to be generous, and to defend the right. -^^ The qualities of a proper

knight included zuht (good breeding and manners) , which were seen in

maze (measured self-restraint) and ere (honor). The knight was filled

with mannes muot (bravery) , and was wary though intrigued by the h^her

muot (exalted spirits) found in courts. This hoher muot was feared by

churchmen who likened it to supcrbia, the sin of Lucifer. The knight

was above all possessed of milte and erbUrmde (generosity and mercy).

Neidhart von Reuental was also faced with a typical sociological

dilemma; whereas the obligations of a status are clearly spelled out,

even codified, the concommitant rights and privileges are not nearly so

well defined. It is known, however, that the French provided the model

for courtly life during the High Middle Ages, in fact, even the French

vocabulary of chivalry was adopted by German knights. Leon Gaultier's

study of the "fifteen relaxations" of knighthood reveals that, if a knight,

one went to tournaments, hunted, fished, and strolled in the orchard,

or if one wished to remain indoors, he sat

. . . warming himself in winter in the chimney corner of
the great fireplace; according open house to wandering
minstrals, hearing all their songs and forming an
orchestra with them; taking or giving fencing lessons;
enjoying the luxury of watching wild animals in combat,
contests dear to all primitive peoples--fights between wild
boars and bears, fights to the death; playing twenty games
of chess interspersed with backgammon and dice; and above
all, eating heartilv and making short work of his store of
Wine. '^^

23

Gautier, Chivalry, pp. 9-10.

Walshe, Medieval German Literature, pp. 92-94.

25

Ibid. 26cautier, Chivalry, p. 213,

51

Though it is not mentioned in the quotation above, it should be
I'emembci'cd tliat these pleasures were conducted in halls richly lined
with tapestries and in the presence of numerous ladies. Ladies were
tlie object and the subject of minae, the higher love. Romantic love,
as it is known in the present century, v/as born in the songs of the
pleasantly distraught knights whose love increased in direct proportion
to the remoteness and unattainability of their favorite lady.

If the knightly pastimes and way of life described above is in any
way an indication of what Neidhart thought was expected of him, and what
he could reasonably expect of his society, it is possible to envision
what he must have felt when confronted \\;ith the actual circumstances of
his life. From what is known of Neidhart 's life, it would appear that
he consciously attempted to meet his obligations, but that he in my way
obtained what he reasonably expected was his due. Tiiere were no fine
ladies in his life, only peasant girls. He did not watch wild boars fight,
rather he watched his pigs root in their sty. Miile, in his mind's eye
he lived in a castle surrounded by gardens and orchards, in terms of fact,
he lived in a rural Bavarian manse which was built about an open hof
v;herein a rich rotting pile of manure steamed throughout the year, with
smirking peasants increasing its bulk by pot and cart load as part of
their feudal due.^'

Though Neidhart von Reuental attempted to live up to the code of
chivalry, accounts of his life would indicate he fovind it impossible

27

Manure vsras an extremely valuable commodity in tlie Middle Ages.

Peasa.nts had to pasture their anim.als on the land of their lord and a

periodic pot of the stuff was often required by feudal lords. Marc

Bloch, French Rurnl History (Berkely, 1966), p. 25.

52

to obey at least t\vO of its injunctions. Although he was bidden to
protect those beneath him and to be generous, he lacked the ability to
do either. That fact, alone, would account for a large part of the
unhappy world view he presented in his poetry. To be specific, the
Alpine peasants who lived about him were hardly in need of protection.
Tliey were the same peasants who, within one hundred )'ears of the time
Neidhart had received his small fief from Leopold, Duke of Austria,
revolted and created the republic of Switzerland. Rather than having
to succor those beneath him, Neidhart noted that the peasants, who by
law were forbidden to wear weapons or bright colored clothing were
armed with swords "as long as flails."-^ As for generosity, he had
neither the wherewithal nor the potential for largesse. Indeed, the
difference between the fortunes of the peasants and Neidhart appears to
have been insignificant. This lack of economic and military differentia-
tion between the peasant and knight resulted from the Alpine ecology
which produced a bare subsistance. The differential distribution of
goods which characterizes societies with an elite, and which would have
been essential in order for Neidhart to assume the role of generous

benefactor, is dependent on a generous surplus of goods, and is largely

30

impossible in a subsistance economy such as his age possessed. His

hopes of serving as a protector were likewise thwarted by the fact that
knights were not militarily powerful in mountainous regions because of

28Hagli, Per deutsche Bauer, 42, 53.
-^Haupt , Neidhart ' s Licder , p . 99 .
•^"Lenski , Power and Privilege, pp. 44-45.

53

the positive disadvantage of being on horseback and in the open when

facing hidden, well-protected antagonists.

The peasants, for tlieir part, didn't make it easy for a knight

to feel paternal about them. Neidhart von Reuental, who in his own

eyes ought to have been surrounded by gentle ladies of the court, had

to m.ake do with peasant maids. This no doubt pleased the maids, but it

might well have created a tense situation with the understandably

irritated men. In fact, the peasant men stole the gifts he had

presented to the girls he wooed and made fun of his courtly love.

As Neidhart put it ,

Giselbolt and Engelram

Disparage me, my singing.

The same two hie themselves to Engelraair

Who with force, took Fridrauna's mirror.

Neidhart von Reuental imagined that his lack of suitable women

pleased the peasants, and in a state of mind approaching paranoia, he

became convinced their intentions were evil.

Amelunge's sorrow

Is not my own.

My love-lack, gives him joy, him and Uodelrich.

He plots my downfall with a secret diligence.

He and Eberbolt, the unmitigated beast.

Eberbolt and Amelune,

Uodelger and Undelhart

Have signed a pact against me.

Many evil things come of this.

How they boast of the shame they'll cause me!

Covertly and openly

They pledge this boast anewl-^"^

^■'-Haupt, Neidhart 's Lieder, p. 96.
3-Jbid. , p. 109.

54

At one point in his writings, Keidhart's anger at the peasants'

temerity and open rivalry for the favors of the peasant maids brings

forth the following angry promise.

He, whoever of his company,

IVho takes the hand of her with whom I dance,

Shall be split an ells width, that is certain.

No help he' 11 find

In doublet or in helm

■2 7

To prevent this injury!

The dismal condition of Neidhart's own wardrobe made the rich

peasants' violation of the existing sumptuary laws even more hateful

in his eyes. For instance, Neidhart promises Hildemar, an overdressed

peasant, a dire future if anyone from court ever sees him with his hood

which has pretty birds embroidered all about it.

Brash, he would be the equal of men of high degree.
Who have spent their days at court and there from

youth have grown.
His hood, if they catch him, will be stripped off

speedily;
Before he knov;s what's happened to him, his birds

will all have flown.
Let this reward he'll receive
Be his ambitions yield. -54

All of ■^-he poems which picture Neidhart von Reuental's unpleasant

relationship with the peasant men are called winter songs because they

begin with a naturalistic description of a winter scene. Neidhart's

more felicitious relationships with the peasant maids are described in

his summer songs. The latter, for example, contain such items as a

village maid's discussion of the chances and the probity of an alliance

33

Ibid. , p. 83.

^'^Ibid. , p. 154.

55

with the knight of Reuental. Significantly, in that dialogue a friend
or inothei' always cast doubts upon tlie feasibility or desirability of
such an occurancc. The maid, of course, will have no other. Peasant
lads, if tliey arc mentioned at all in the summer songs, are the losers
in the contest for the maids' affections.

The fawning subservience which characterizes tlie fifteenth century
relationship of the legendary Neidhart Fuchs to the mythic Duke has its
origins in the poetry of Neidhart von Reuental. Miether or not Neidhart
von Reuental felt this way about his overlord is difficult to tell.
There is some suggestion that the von Reuental parody of peasant manners
may have been a double-edged sword. The higher love of the courts may
have been the object of a subtle attack by him. In any case, in his
poems, Neidhart von Reuental was manifestly polite and even servile
toward the Duke. At one point he thanks him for his gift of land and
wonders if the feudal due might be waived. A similar degree of
subservience is evidenced when he asks for a house to hold the casket
of silver the Duke has given him. Later, Neidhart pledges that, in life,
he will serve the Duke by his hand, and in death, should he see God,
his tongue v/ill sing a song of praise so that the Duke will be known the
breadth of Paradise. ^7 Finally, proof of the servility of Neidhart can
be found in the fact one poem even professes pleasure over the fact that
the Duke saw fit to draft Neidhart 's own men, Bcreluip, Irenwart , and

Walshe, Medieval German Literature, p. 127.

^^Ibid. , p. 128. _

37i

■ell. Peasant Life, pp. 130-181,

56

Uoge, into tlic army. The poem in question concludes with the following

thinly veiled allegoiy.

lie who has a bird whom he bids sing

Throughout the year,

Should the while

Mend the birdliouse

And give him food.

So tluit this same bird

Can sing sweetly. -^^

TIiG examples of Neidliart's work cited above provide an outline
of his definition of the social situation in medieval Germany. This
definition was not unwarranted. His irritation at the peasant men for
their rivalry and their presumptious adoption of knightly usages was
justified both by law and by custom. His subservience to the Duke is
equally understandable since only the Duke could rescue him from his
penury and lack of land. It is ec[ually obvious, however, tliat Neidluirt's
definition of the social situation was not the only one. His contemporary,
Hartmann von Aue , the author of Per arme Heinrich, was a simple knight
who lived in circumstances which would have been similar to those
experienced by Neidhart. Nevertheless, Hartmann's works contain the
kindest literary treatment of the peasants in the Middle Ages.

It lias been shown that the origin of the conflict found in the
Neidhart plays can be traced to the organization of the feudal structure
in Germany during the High Middle Ages. Seeds of the conflict are found
in the fact that armed peasants who ivere for the most part free were,
nonetheless, entirely without privilege, for privilege belonged to the
nobility. In turn, the lower nobility, the knights, possessed privileges

^^Ibid., p. 151.

57

without the means to exercise them. Though this was the typical situation
in southern Germany, there were radically different definitions of that
situation. The poetry of Neidhart von Reuental created one definition
which pictured knights as "song birds," dukes as warders of birdhouses,
and peasants as presumptuous poltroons. It was this definition which
served as the genesis of the legend of Neidhart Fuchs, "enemy of the
peasant . "

The process of the historic selection of Neidhart 's definition of
the situation over all others will be the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER THREE

Tl^e Development of the Neidhart Legend

In the preceding chapters, the social significance and the social
and literary origins of the Neidhart plays were discussed. It was
found the unrealistic, but functional, definition of the social
situation implicit in those fourteenth and fifteentli century plays
stemmed from the world view held by Neidhart von Rcucntal, a poor
German kniglit of the early thirteenth century. The purpose of this, the
last portion of tlie social analysis of tlie Neidhart plays, is to consider
factors affecting the process by whicli the views, and motifs of Neidliart
von Reuental's poetry became part of the traditional literature of the
Late Middle Ages. The initial portion of this examination traces the
development of tlie legend from the time of its source in tlie historic
figure of NeJdhart von Reuental to its fruition in the fifteenth century
plays. That accomplished, the factors which favored the adoption of
Neidhart 's world view over other prevailing views will be considered.
Finally, the process by wliich the Neidliart world view was adopted will
be examined.

The development of tlie Neidhart myth falls into three definable
phases; the first is Neidhart von Reuental's personal definition of
the situation, a definition which evolved in the first half of the

58

59

thirteenth century. The second is found in the corpus of poetry known
as the Neidhart apocrypha [Haupt's Unechte Lieder) which stems from the
time of the historic character to the advent of the fifteenth century.
The third and final phase is encompassed in the plays and the legend
of Neidhart Fuchs. Richard M. Meyer points out there is a logic in
this progression or development, namely, the first phase is Neidhart, the
second like Neidhart, and the third about Neidhart.

If one recalls the tone, motifs, and structure of the plays, and
then compares them to the brief exposition of Neidhart 's poetry presented
in Chapter Two, it becomes apparent that the development of the myth
involved an adaptation of the works of Neidhart von Reuental as it did
adoption of them. Although earlier discussion has taken significant
note of that historic character's dislike of the peasantry, his views
on that issue must bo contrasted with the even more extreme expressions
found in the later works. Therefore, the positive, less extreme aspects
of his attitude toward peasants must receive attention.

In order to trace the development of the Neidhart legend, the
first facet in the work which must be considered is the shift in the
emotional tone of the writings from that found in the poetry of the
historic Neidhart to that of the traditional narrative. Neidhart von
Reuental was a realistic, perhaps satiric, poet who was exclusively
occupied with attempts to attain and protect the rights he felt were
his. One senses a sad, world-weary quality in a good number of his poems.

"Die Neidhart legende" in Zeitschrift fUr deutsches Altertum und
deutsche Litteratur, XXXI (1887), 66.

60

Some modern students of German literature feel he was resigned to the
fact that peasants such as those he dealt with were there to stay.^ In
the second phase of the legend's development, the Neidliart apocrypha,
Neidhart's attitude and accompanying treatment of the peasants reveals
a small but distinct tendency toward bitterness and direct assault. It
is in the final phase of development, however, that the greatest change
takes place. The fifteenth century plays and legend have little of
the sad, world-weary quality discernable in the earlier works. That
early quality is replaced by a mood of violence, cruelty, and acrimony
which is evident even in the translation of the plays. By the time the
legend of Neidhart Fuchs went into print in the last quarter of the
fifteenth century it was, if anything, even more profoundly steeped in a
spirit of hatred. Thus, a clear progression can be seen from the
relatively mild almost passive quality of Neidhart von Reuental's
poems to the active, harsh quality of the later narratives.

The treatment of the peasant characters in the various phases of
the legend's development parallels the progression in mood noted above.
Insofar as the man Neidhart von Reuental is concerned, it would be
incorrect to state that he had any great appreciation of peasant men in
general. It should be noted, however, his hatred was directed toward
specific peasants -- nam.ely, Engelmair and his lieutenants, not toward
the peasant class as a whole. Indeed, when he joins the peasants in a
sleigh party he calls them "youngsters" (kint) and joins their dance by

2

A. T. Hat to and R. J. Taylor, The Songs of Neidhart von Reuental_^

(Manchester, 1958), p. 5.

61

3

a warm stove. This is liardly the language and behavior of a man filled

with hatred. In a similar scene in the first of Neidliart's winter
songs, he describes a winter which is so cold it has driven all of the
young people indoors into the house of Engelmair, the one v^^lio, in time,
is to be the epitome of peasant villiany. In the poem, the peasants
dance and laugh v.'hile Neidhart composes a new song so that all might
forego heavy liearts. The warm atmosphere and happy people, secure from

winter's depredations, make Neidhart declare: "Engelmair, your lodge

4
is good." This brief and grudging praise of Engelmair cannot be construed

as an encomium, but it is in marked contrast to the unrelenting and

general hatred of peasants found in the later works.

Neidhart 's poetic treatment of peasant women offers an even greater

basis for establishing a difference in the attitudes and belief sets

between the High and Later Middle Ages. Tlie Neidhart v^hom history

records appears to have taken a positive view toward the peasant women

around him. He refers to one of liis peasant loves as ein jungiu meid

(a young maiden) and to the others as maids (mUgde) . Moreover, the girl

Fridrauna, appears allegorically, if not in fact, to have been Neidhart 's

chief peasant love, and when his poems make reference to her they tend

to lose their sardonic quality. As a case in point, one might consider

the following reference to her.

Now the meadow is a lace of flowers
With wide-eyes roses
Bright upon the heath

3
Haupt , Neidhart ' s Lieder, p. 60.

"^Ibid. , p. 55 ' .

^ Ibid . , p . 7 .

62

Resplendent pierced.

A garland of these I sent

To . . . l-'ridrauna.

It would appear, therefore, Neidhart von Reuontal did not take
a totally negative or bitter view of the peasants. He could see some
good in peasant men, even in Engelmair at one time, and in various ways
he "loved" the peasant maidens.

In tracing the development of the legend, and in particular

attitudinal shifts witliin it, the Neidhart apocryplia represents a

transition from tlie position found in tlie poems of the historical Neidhart

to tiiat found in the legend of Neidl^art Fuchs. It is the apocrypha

collection ivhich contains the first explicit statements or examples

of bitter hatred toward the peasants. For instance, after depicting a

peasant brawl the pseudo-Neidhart says:

Holerswan and Bezeman
Were cut to the quick.
Not that I care much.
They could liave all died.

May God with the same dispatch of my departure ever
Curse these louts!

llie extent to which tliis attitude represents a departure from the

attitude of the original knight and poet is clearly seen by comparing

the ending of an analogous scene written by Neidhart von Reuental. After

the latter has depicted the fatal conflict between Holerswan and Bezeman

lie simply says: "He must on this same place lie dead./ Isn't that a

shame?" IVliereas Neidhart von Reuental was indirect, and at the most

^Ibid. , p. 38.
^Ibid. , p. lii

63

sai'castiCj the pseudo-Neidhart was quite direct and bitter.

In the third phase of tlie development of the legend from wliich the
plays were derived, tlie peasant men and women have an entirely different
character than their High Middle Age counterparts. Gngelmair, who is
pictured as boorish and aggressive in Neidhart von Reuental's poems,
becomes the evil, sly, and violently discourteous peasant of the Late

o

Middle Ages. Likewise, his wife and daughters do not remain the simple
rural women who could tempt a knight to something like a profession of

love. Instead, they are imbued with the distinctly inferior attributes

9

of city servants. The Greater Neidhart provides within its stage

directions the best evidence of this change of character. Its author
begins by calling the peasant women paurdiern (peasant wenches), then
he slips into hausdiern (house wench, scullion), and finally he refers
to them as simple diern (wenches). In addition, an examination of the
Sterzing Scenerio reveals evidence of the beginnings of a naive class
consciousness. In it, the prologue asks the audience not to censure the
actors who stammer their lines for some can't read (232, 237) and
Engelmair solemnly requests that the messenger read Neidhart 's challenge
because he had never been to school (242, 249). Literacy, which had
been the property of the church in Neidhart von Reuental's time, had
apparently become a commodity which could be purchased by the affluent
middle class of the Late Middle Ages. So, as the legend developed, the

A survey of the literature of the late medieval period establishes
this to be the general attitude expressed. See KUgli, Deutsches Bauer,
p. 4.

^Ibid. , p. 97.

64

peasants not only came to be viewed as sly devils or scullion wenches,
but as ignortiiit illiterates.

The third and final facet of the legend's development to be
considered involves tlie origin and development of the concept of the
inversely proportionate distribution of fortunes and desirable character-
istics between knights and peasants. This idea differs considerably
from the simple declaration that peasants are bad and knights are good.
It involves a ratio that functions as a formula for both dramatic and
social action. It suggests that if, percliance, a peasant should come
into good fortune, the fortunes of a knight must or will decline. Parity
even by accident is precluded. Mien the poems of the original Neidhart
von Reuental are considered, it is apparent his contribution to this
idea is slight and certainly not explicitly stated in his poetry. Tliere
were two formal divisions of his works, liowever, wliich may have suggested
something of this idea to later writers. Neidhart von Reuental chose
to record his conquests in the joyful summer songs and his defeats at
the hands of the peasant men in the winter songs. While this mild
dialectic tendency receives no further amplification in the apocryplia, it
was fully set forth by the time of the plays and tlie writing of Neidhart
Fuclis . For example, by then Frederich of Sunnenberg, an aphoristic poet
of the second half of the thirteenth century, had written:

Noble and wellborn man gladly strives for honor;
likewise, a peasant is pleased with misdeeds, that is
innate. The nobleman occupies liimself with good conduct
and worthiness, whenever a peasant acts knavishly he is
happy and very contented. •'■^

George Fcnwick Jones, Honor in German Literature (Chapel Hill,
1959), p. 106.

65

The above is an exact foi-raulatioa of the attitude or concept

identified in the structural analysis of the Neidliart plays. Hven

the ethical systems of the tv;o statuses are inverted. I'/hat is virtue ;

in a knight is vice in a peasant, etc. In the final phase of the

legend's development , this definition of status relationship was widened

to include every class and occupational group. For example, the story

of Til Eulenspiegel , which was written at the turn of the fifteenth

century tells of how Til, a clever peasant lad, outwits and cheats

every one from priest, to baker, to landed aristocracy. At this

point in history, it was believed that what was good for peasants was

bad, not only for knights, but for every one else. In the Greater

Neidhart a precise formulation of this fortune-character ratio is

stated by the character Lucifer who says of the peasants:

They diminish

The nobles' stature every day.

The peasants rise

And the kniglithood falls

As you have just been told.

(201, 439, 31)

The depth of peasant-hatred in the last part of the fifteenth
century and early sixteenth century cannot be exaggerated. The peasants'
brief rise in wealth was over and they were once again sinking into abject
poverty wliich was to provoke, in part, the Peasants War of 1525. Yet the
"humanist" Bebel writes:

Be silent, peasant, mark v/hat I say: I do not wish to hide
the truth. You sliould be punished annually, as a willow tree
is trimmed with a knife every year. UTien its sap is drained the
tree yields much more, while overgrowth would hamper the wood.
Peasant, you have become too proud because they leave you too much
money.

Translated by Erwin Gudde , Social Conflicts, p. 126.

66

So tliis, the third salient feature in tlie development of the
Neidhart legend, like tlie general tone and specific treatment of the
peasant status, changed from a passive, open definition of situation
at the time of its adoption to an active, closed, almost mechanical
definition of both the cast and action of the social drama.

Now that the adoption and adaption of Neidhart von Reuental's
world views have been reviewed, the further task of this chapter is to
explain what factors favored the choice of his definition of the high
medieval social situation over all others.

Examination of the factors which affected the selection of Neidhart 's
definition of the situation is warranted if one recalls that Hartmann
von Aue , the author of Per arme Heinrich, lived in the same period and
among the same people as did Neidhart. Kartmann's radically different
view of peasant-knight relationships was as well known and perhaps

better liked than Neidhart 's (witness Walther von der Vogelweide's

12
criticism], however, his world view was, nowhere, perpetuated in sub-
sequent literary effort. In spite of its popularity, Hartmann 's work
remained a curiosity in a sea of anti-peasant sentiment, while Neidhart
von Reuental's poetry evolved as the putative source and hallmark of
peasant hatred. The factors which influenced this selection suggest, in
part, why this became the case.

■'^He likened Neidhart's poetry to the "croaking of frogs." Walshe,
Medieval German Literature, p. 127.

67

The first and perhaps most important factor involved in the
creation of a favorable climate for the view of society implicit in
Neidhart von Reuental's poetry was that, in a way, it explained a
troubling social phenomenon found in agrarian cultures which possess an
hereditary elite estate. Briefly, this phenomenon consists of a
perpetually falling nobility. Neidhart 's explanation of this peculiar
state of affairs was based on the common, but fallacious, mode of
reasoning: Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Following that line of reasoning,
it was assumed that if the nobility were falling and some of the peasantry
rising there must be a connection between the two events. In actual
fact, however, that causal relationship did not exist, as the following
discussion will show.

Although the social structures which are common to agrarian cultures
are often thought of as rigid, architectonic constructs, in reality
they have the capacity for a considerable degree of social mobility.
This mobility is difficult to detect from the vantage point of our
modern IVestern civilization because the idea of an upper class in a
permanent state of decline is largely inconceivable. The agrarian society
in which Neidhart lived had a structural feature, however, which made
upward m.obility a possibility, but downward mobility the rule. Each
rank within the privileged estate breeds more individuals than there
are status vacancies for them to fill. If a given society employs the

l-^Lenski, Power and Privilege, pp. 289-291. The anomalies which can
result from this feature of agrarian social organizations border on being
incredible. In eigliteenth or nineteenth century Russia, some nobles were
so poor they ate and slept with their peasants in one large hut. Some
serfs bought their freedom and had enough money left over to live as
wealtliy men for the rest of their lives.

68

principle of pr Lmogeniture, the effect is to increase tlie rate of decline
of tl\e nobility. For example, in Neidliart's day, a baron produced one
baron and several bannerets; tliat is, liis eldest son assumed his title,
but his younger sons automatically were members of a lower feudal rank.
A banneret was usually assured a holding of land lie might pass on to his
eldest son, but his younger sons were assured of nothing except that
their uncle, the baron, would in time make them kniglits. In Germany, as
pointed out previously, no secure holding of land was associated with
kniglitliood. Further, since knighthood was an achieved status at the
bottom of the ranking system, it produced no other of its kind. Knights,
therefore, generated squires, priests, minstrels, robbers, or waspish-
tempered free peasants. This, the last step, was critical because it
was here that one dropped out of the aggregate of governing statuses.
In contrast to this rule of downward mobility, upward mobility from tlie
estate of peasant to noble was less certainly achieved. Tne uncertainty
of this rise is not nearly as important to comprehension of the source
of misunderstanding between peasant and knight as is tlie means by which
the extremely fortunate peasant rose. In feudal Germany, a peasant or
member of the lower class could rise by becoming a bureaucrat. One
could manage a remote holding of land for a baron and, in time, be
rewarded by knighthood. In no case, however, did a peasant directly
replace a knight of declining fortune. Knights and peasants were not
customarily rivals for these bureaucratic positions. Not only did the .
established aristocracy prefer employing the less prestigious and

69

therefore more malleable members of the despised peasant estate, but
the fallen aristocrats were reluctant to go into the service of another.
V/hile it is obvious that this structural and organizational configura-
tion made the oldest brother of any aristocrat his natural rival, tlie i
rivalry between knight and peasant vvas stressed, moreso perhaps, because /
it encompassed the nexus of vertical motion in this society.

One reason for the acceptance of Neidhart von Reuental's view over
that of his contemporaries is apparent at this point. Miile the early
part of the thirteenth century was receptive to any explanation of the
state of social affairs, Hartmann von Aues view, for example, offered
society as a whole only an intensification of the paradox. Indeed, a
view such as his would have required the knights to love those whom they
imagined were displacing them. It is not surprising, therefore, that
the populus came close to embrace Neidhart 's common sense definition
of the situation.

The second factor which caused a favorable response to Neidhart
von Reuental's views grew out of historic considerations.

Two historic tendencies increased the structural tensions within
Neidhart 's society and created a receptive atmosphere for his definition
of the situation. Tl^ie first of these was the fact that after the Black
Plague the peasants became materially well-to-do because of a scarcity
of labor. The second was the fact knighthood was dropped as a significant
part of the socio-economic organization of the Later Middle Ages. It

suffices to say of the peasants that, when they began to drink better

14

wine and wear better clothes than their less well-to-do superiors,

J. IV. Thompson, Economic and Social History, p. 484.

70
they were less loved than ever. In a sense, the plight of the knights
was like a Ccrvantian tragicomedy. Knights created associations which
alternately united with the dukes against the cities, or with the
cities against the dukes, or even with peasants, as was the case in
three occasions mentioned in Chapter One. hlioever was allied with the
kniglits had to feed tliem, and any peasant with a pike, long bow, or cannon
could defeat them. Since tliere was literally no place for them in tlie
evolving society, the knights' behavior reflected little regularity and
less purpose. The coincidence of these two liistoric tendencies confirmed
the common belief that the peasants were pushing the knighthood out of
their (the knights') place in tlie social structure.

The combination of the social and historical factors which caused
the selection of Neidhart von Reucntal's views over those of his contem-
poraries by the popiilus of medieval Germany constitutes but one part of
the explanation of why the legend of Neidhart Fuchs came to be. After
all, the views of an historic personage may be adopted by a later period
without any identification of the m.an with those views. To understand
why the fifteenth century legend specifically linked Neidhart von Reuental's
name with his definition of tlie situation, it is necessary to review
those aspects of his personal history which made liim a likely candidate
for becoming a cultural hero. It will be shown, first, that certain
events in his life correspond to those of a Western archetypical hero.

Barraclough, Origins of Modem Germany, p. 355.
^'^Ibid., p. 330.

71
Tlien, secondly, the marginality of Neidhart von Reuental's social position
will be shown to have facilitated his transformation into a particular
type of traditional hero known as the "trickster" -- a hero who haunts
the boundaries of acceptable human behavior.

Neidhart von Reuental's personal history is shrouded in mystery.
Nothing is known of him until he went to war in 1217, and nothing is
heard of him after he was received at the court of the Duke of Austria in
1230. As has been stated above, the middle portion of his life was filled
with adversity wliich he overcame when he became the ward of the Duke.

This history meets several of the canonical features of the archetypical

1 7
hero derived by Lord Raglan. Raglan divides the "hero's" history into

twenty-two typical events. If these twenty-two events are considered
on a three-part divisional basis, it becomes apparent that what one does
not know about the first and last part of the life of a hero is very
important. As Raglan conceives of the hero, his origins and ultimate
"destination" are cloaked in mystery. In a sense, a hero must be an open-
ended construct. That is, the circumstances surrounding his entrance
and exit from the mythic arena must be loose enough to permit the unusual
behavior expected of him. KHiile Neidhart von Reuental killed no dragon,
his eventual victory over the major obstacle in his life (landlessness) ,
plus the mystery surrounding his birth and death, m.ade him a likely-
Raglan, The Hero, pp. 178-179. Raglan's construct works well enough
for Western heros. Its validity decreases as one moves toward the Far
East. See Victor R. Cook, "Lord Raglan's Hero: A Cross-Cultural Critique"
in The Florida Anthropologist, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, Part 1, pp. 147-153.

72

candidate foi' legendary apotheosis.

In a consideration of factors which may have facilitated tlie
transformation of Neidhart von Rcuental into a traditional hero of
legend and drama, it should also be noted that the marginality of
Neidhart 's social position provided certain distinct parallels to the
traditional mythic character known as the trickster. As has been noted
before, the defining social relationships which constituted tlie status
kniglit were never very rich in medieval Germany. The knight was excluded
from a meaningful role in the political and economic systems of his
culture. At the time Neidhart von Rcuental lived, the last significant
bond of the kniglit to his society (military capability) was being
weakened by bow and pike. In the liglit of these factors his status does,
indeed, appear marginal. In a way, this unhinged quality of Neidhart 's
social position permitted him a kind of freedom which he would not' have
possessed had he played the role of a landed aristocrat. For example,
one of Neidhart 's knightly contemporaries, Ulricli von Liechtenstein, is
said to have drunk the water in which his lady had washed her hands; then
he chopped off his little finger and sent it to her; finally, he dressed

as Venus and made a trip through southern Germany, challenging those who

1 8
dared to snicker. Such wide-ranging, anomolous behavior, which a

knight's marginal status made possible, is precisely the stuff from which

trickster heroes and gods arc made. For example, mythologist Victor W.

1 9

Walshe, Medieval German Literature, p. 130.

73

Turner has described a trickster as:

A liomcless v.'andering spirit. . . he is present u'henever
there is trouble and also whenever there is change and
transition , . . in most Trickster tales there are many
scatological and even coprophagous episodes exemplifying
the katabolic nature of the Trickster . . .
Other traits ascribed to Tricksters include
combined black and white symbolism, aggression,
vindictiveness , vanity, [and] defiance of
authority . . . . ^

The trickster is called a "liminal" character because he is an
edge man, 20 a creature who acts out the range of possible behavior in a
period of transition. The Greek, Hermes, the Norse god, Loki, and the
IVinnebago, IVakdjunkaga are examples of this type of mythical hero. This
liminal characteristic of the trickster has its social analogue in the
character who has a marginal status within his society.

The mythic offspring of Neidhart von Reuental, Neidhart Fuchs,
corresponds in many wa.ys to the liminal character of the trickster. He
is certainly a homeless, wandering spirit who is found where trouble is.
Also the scatology, vanity, vindictiveness, and aggression attributed
to tlie trickster are evident enough in the real life character of Neidhart
von Reuental. Indications of Neidhart 's defiance of authority is veiled
in the plays, as it understandably would have to be in an event presented
publicly in the fourteenth century, but it is clear in the legend that
his relationships with the high-born ladies of his superiors were not
as platonic as decorum would dictate. Moreover, in both the play and the
legend, Neidhart 's antinomous nature is indicated by his love of disguise.

^^Victor Turner, "Myth and Symbol" in Tlie International Encyclopedia
of the Social Science's, ed. David L. Sills (New York, 1968), 581-582.

20ibid.

74
Then took the black and white symbolism so typical of the trickster
tales is evident in the names of the play's central characters. Since
Neidhart is without a doubt the protagonist of the dramatic works, it is
interesting to note that his name, in root translation, connotes something
far less noble or savory. Neid means wickedness and envy, while the

combination Neidhart means "hard in battle." Neidhart was also the

22
name of a famous devil found in a tenth century tale. The same symbolic

phenomenon can be observed with respect to the peasant Hngelmair who,

in the plays, displays distinctively villianous characteristics; the

Engl in Engelmair is a cognate of our word "angel." In fact, on one

occasion it is used as a name for a specific angel (Englmar) . Tnus ,

the narratives fostered by Neidhart and his life tend to duplicate or

perpetuate a type of antithetic symbolism favored in the trickster tales.

It is obvious that Neidhart Fuchs qualifies in many ways as a
trickster tale, and it is equally obvious that the anomolous behavior
associated with Neidhart von Reuental's marginal status acted as an
additional aid in the process of transforming him into a tradition hero.

Since the development of the legend and factors which favored its
development have been exposed, it is now possible to examine the relation-
ship between the changing Neidhart myth and the changing society. This
does not involve a recapitulation of the development of the legend, or

21
"Samuel Singer, Neidhart Studien (fUbingen, 1920), p. 11.

22lbid.

^^Ibid.

75 ■

of the factors which caused the general adoption of Ncidhart views.

Rather, it involves the calculus of mythic and social processes which \/

occurred in this historic instance.

As used here, the phrase "a calculus of social and mythic processes"
refers to a description of the consequential relationships between
certain evolving secondary social systems and a simultaneously evolving
myth. Before proceeding to such an identification or description, it
should be understood that cause and effect relationships cannot be
claimed or established if the terms are used in their strictest sense.
Shifts in the social system and in the myth do not directly affect one
another. Rather, they are met in the psychological processes of human
beings. It must be understood, also, there is no invariable response
to a given stimulus from either term in the relationship. Thus, no
universal or "lawful" statement concerning the process can evolve. Miat
is left after observation of these rather stringent qualifications is the
possibility of describing the influence, or as Arnold Hauser says,
"conditioning" of one element upon the other.

The description of the specific processes of interaction between
myth and secondary social systems requires a general discussion of the
functional relationship betv;een systemic levels in any society and some
specific treatment of the structure of belief in human individuals. The
story of these factors subsumes three of the four steps through vvhich
influence from either the social system or the myth will be traced.

76

Societies can be divided into three functional levels. The first
level includes the institutions which provide for the basic needs of
man (e.g., the family); the second level is composed of systems which
provide instrumental support for the first level institutions (e.g., the
educational system) ; the third level provides for the integrative and
symbolic needs of the society as a whole (e.g., religion or myth).^'^ In
addition to this clear vertical line of need and need fulfillment, there
is also a descendent functional relationship between the three levels.
For instance, knowledge at the third function level not only fills the
content need of the system of education at the second function level, but
also to some degree, it shapes the form of that system. Furthermore,
the educational system not only fulfills the needs of primary institu-
tions for skilled prlducers, but it also influences the tastes and needs
of tlie consumer. The functional relationship of the three levels is thus
a reflexive one, 25

It is customary and proper in m.ost sociological investigations to
treat man's needs as being apart from man himself since those needs pertain
to psychology. Such a restriction in scope is not possible, however, if
one wishes to discuss specific processes taking place between functional
levels inasmuch as the medium of the interaction is within the individual
psyche. Since the relationship between the medieval German social system

-'^Bronislav Malinowski, "The Group and Individual in Functional
Analysis" in American Journal of Sociology (May, 1939): 938-964.

25r. h. Tawny successfully attacked both those who held that Calvinism
gave rise to capitalism and those who claimed to the contrary that
capitalism gave rise to Calvinism. He concluded that both were mutually
influential, see Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York, 1952),
pp. xvi-xix.

77
and the art and myth of Neidhart von Reuental crosses the second and
third functional levels within society, the specific medium of their
interaction must be examined. This medium was the belief system of the
medieval German populus.

As groundwork for this phase of the consideration of the inter-
action of the Neidhart myth and prevailing secondary social systems, it
will be helpful to note that Milton Rokeach, an eminent experimental
psychologist, has established the existence of five distinguishable
types of belief which lie on a central to peripheral axis. Respectively,
these levels represent primitive beliefs which are held by all the members
of the society (type A); primitive beliefs which are equally incontro-
vertible, but which are held only by a given person (type B) ; authority
beliefs which are essentially ethical judgements about significant
individuals and groups (type C) ; derived beliefs which eminate from
authority (type D) ; and finally, inconsequential beliefs which are
incontrovertible because they spring from direct experience, beliefs
deemed inconsequential because they are not connected with other beliefs
and have no significance outside of themselves (type E).^" Matters of
taste, or opinions on less than important matters, are expressions of
the latter kind of belief. Of the five levels of belief enumerated
above, the first was found to be held the most tenaciously by experimental
subjects. The remaining four, being less central, were less tenaciously
held to by the subjects. It is through these outer or peripheral four

26f

ielief. Attitude, and Value (San Francisco, 1968), pp. 6-11,

78
levels of belief that t!ie interaction process between the Neidhart myth
and the medieval German social system takes place.

Tlie discussion of the process of interaction between the Neidhart
poetry and tlie Neidhart myth which follows will be divided into four
stages. The first stage will begiil at the time of the historical
Neidhart and the last stage will represent the time immediately prior
to the invention of the legend of Neidhart Fuchs and the Neidhart plays.
Each of the four stages will be divided into four synchronic steps. In
this process, the item to be treated first -- social system or poem/myth
will be determined by the direction of the line of influence. In turn,
eitlier a transaction or a belief will be discussed, the order, again,
being determined by tlie direction of the line of influence. It should
be noted at this point that the v;ord transaction means simply some human
activity which brings the extreme terms of the formula into contact.
After the synchronic relationships in a given stage have been discussed,
the succeeding stage will be treated.

State one begins with the social situation in Germany during the
High Middle Ages. In addition to the previously noted features of tlvis
society (see Cliapter Two), there is the fact that Neidhart lived in an
age in which tlie economy not only involved market exchange, but stressed
reciprocal exchange and the redistribution of goods and services. The
markets, which served as a kind of comimmication system as well as a
medium for commerce, were m.ostly rural because big city markets were
not yet free of feudal domination. This locally centered economic and
political feature of the high m.edieval society, wliich isolated or

79

insulated local groups, permitted pluralistic definitions of the situa-
tion. This factor combined with the social vicissitudes discussed in
the previous chapter to influence Neidhart von Reuental's view of himself
and his neighbors. His belief in this regard was of the primitive
incontrovertible personal variety (type B) . This firmly held, though
unique, view fostered his creative endeavor (transaction step) and his
poetry because it satisfied an existing symbolic need, which represents
the third functional level of society.

Stage two of this myth-poetic interaction begins with the poetry
of Neidhart and shcvjs the counterinf luence which the poetry had on the
society from which it sprang. Since the poem, once created, stands
free and is independent of its author and the society influencing him,
its use or value is dictated, not by the factors affecting its genesis,
but by its subsequent interaction with an inevitably changed and changing
society. The second step in this phase of the poem-myth relationship
is marked by the poetry's influence on the belief systems of the aggregate
of its audience. Insofar as individual members of that audience liked
or disliked Neidhart von Reuental's poetry, their belief (attitude)
concerning it was of the most peripheral sort (incontrovertible, but
insignificant). Those beliefs were a matter of taste and, as such, they
had no external consequence. For example, there is little doubt that
many of the people who were familiar with Neidhart 's poems had also
heard Hartman von Aues' story of the good peasant and the kind knight.
Moreover, it is probable they responded to Hartmann's tale with equal

80

enjoyment and without a trace of anxiety about the manifest inconsistency
of the two poems social implications.

The diversity of pei'ipheral belief mentioned above came at a time
when social systems in medieval Germany had begun a new stage of
developm.ent. During the Interregnum (1250-1273), the major cities of
Germany became independent political entities. In addition, a Ijig city
market economy with widely expanded trade and transportation routes
supplanted German economic particularism; the traditional rural market
no longer served as the economic center of the nation and the principles

of reciprocity and redistribution were done away with in rapid fashion.

71
In a short time, Germany became the most urban of any European nation.^'

This development interacted with the existing Neidhart poetiy in an

important way. It created conditions which tended to narrow the range

of definitions of the situation, and it enhanced the possibility of

consensual appreciation of Neidhart von Reuental's views.

The increase in trade and transportation which followed the

urbanization of Germany was, in effect, a communication system. It

brought more people from different areas together in brief, but intense,

periods of social interaction. This type of improved interpersonal

com.munication tends to encourage conformity in a twofold manner. People

avoid what is called "cognitive dissonance," and they attach extreme

v;

28

alue to belief congruence. ^'^ For example, if several medieval German

27
^Rokeach, Belief, pp. 20-21, 88

J. W. Thompson, Economic and Social History, p. 126.
28,

81

mcrcliants held disparate views on peasantry, they would have tended to
resolve their differences in direct proportion to the frequency and the
intensity of their social interaction in the market place.

Once developments in trade and transportation had established the
interaction potential outlined above, the altered social situation
exerted an influence on the belief systems of the general population
which aided in the eventual popularization of Neidhart von Reucntal's
works. Vflien it became necessary to work and trade with a multitude of
people, and when individuals found that their personal views were shared
by others, "he population's beliefs about Neidhart 's poetry ceased to be
merely a matter of individual taste. With respect to the advejit of this
more uniform pattern of belief, it should be remembered that consensus
is more than an aggregate of similar views; it is also a group awareness
of similarity of belief. An inconsequential belief which one holds as
a matter of taste takes on the weight of a derived or authoritative

on

belief if one discovers it is shared by significant otiiers. The next
phase of the popularization of Neidhart 's work stems from this consensus.
Evidence in support of this proposition is found in the fact that since
there is no large corpus of apocryphal works dealing with the life,
world view or efforts of Hartman von Aue, who was more highly thought
of as a poet than Neidhart von Reuental, it would appear Neidhart had
the "better explanation" of the social situation during this period of
social and economic integration.

-^Ibid., p. 10.

82

The next step in this process of mythic and social interaction began
with the writing of the Neidhart apocrypha by the pseudo Neidharts and
lead through the transaction called assimilation^*^ which, in turn,
influenced the belief structure of the general population. Belief in
peasant wickedness became not only a derived belief based on consensus,
but in addition, it became a valuation of negative authority; that is,
a negative belief about a significant (reference) group. The social
utility of negative reference individuals and groups has been clearly
pointed out in several studies. -^^ An individual knows what lie is, in part,
by virtue of what he is not. It would be an exaggeration to classify
peasants as deviants in the strict sense of the word, but it would be

proper to call them "pariahs" in the sense of Paul Bohannon's use of

32
the term. Like deviants, pariahs tend to mark the boundaries of

accepted social existence. When this final alteration in attitudes of

the populace of medieval Germany occurred, it interacted with a new

shift in the social system.

The disintegration of the estate system of stratification in

medieval Germany began at the same moment that the thrust of urbanization

was in full force (1250-1276). As noted previously, that estate system

was a series of vertically oriented, legally defined social divisions.

Each division was a social entity in itself with a distinct or given

30

The identification of a characterized subject with the characteriza-
tion, e.g., a peasant who acts "uppity" is regarded more as "uppity" than
peasant. Ibid., p. 91.

^-^Kai T. Erikson, The Wa>is'ard Puritans (New York, 1966); Robert A.
Dentier and Kai T. Erikson, "The Functions of Deviance in Groups" in
Social Problems, VII (1959), 98-107; George Herbert Mead, "The Psychology
of Punitive Jus'tice" in American Journal of Sociology, VIII (1918), 571-602,

^-Social Anthropology, pp. 183-184, 205-206.

83
purview. With i-espect to the disintegration of the estate system, it
should be pointed out that during the Interregnum, the Sachsenspiegel
(law of the Saxons) was translated into the vernacular. Its contents
bore the seeds of many revolutions, but its iiranediate effect was to
replace, in part, the particularism of the German legal system-'-^ and
thus undermine the estate system of stratification. IVliereas the
medieval estate system was based on equality in the eyes of God and
inequality by law, the Sachsenspiegel suggested that men were naturally
endowed with certain rights and, thus, were fundameritally equal before
the law as well as God. I'/lien the Sachsenspiegel and the other
comprehensive law systems which followed it brought about the dissolu-
tion of intra-estate law, the way was opened for social stratification
by class, a stratif ica,tion which was in effect a horizontal division
by social traits.

For the purposes of this study, the process of interaction between
the social systems of medieval Germany and the Neidhart myth may be
considered to have culminated at this point. Neidhart Fuchs, the enemy
of the peasant, and Neidhart plays of fourteenth ar^d fifteenth century
Germany can be legitimately viewed as the product of an evolving class
system interacting with an assimilated myth based 'upon wicked peasants
who fictively displaced their betters. l\lien the assignm.ent of traits to
classes began, t'ne nobility was deemed honorable, a/id in time the middle
class was thought of as sturdy and thrifty, but the peasants for reasons

33

J. IV. Thom.pson, Economic and Social History, p. 487.

34

Rudolf Huebner, "Man, Right, and Association" in Anthropology and

Early Law, ed. Lawrence Krader (New York, 1966), p. 237.

84
promulgated centuries eai'lier v;ere thought of as sly devils and loose
scullion wenches.

In tliiSj tlie last portion of the social analysis of the Neidliart
plays, the development of the Neidhart mytl\ has been traced from Neidhart's
poetry to t'ne legend of Neidhart Fuclis. It has been shown that Neidhart's ';
view of his situation was cliosen from the many otliers because of the
existence of conditions of receptivity in the society, and beca.use his • v,:
character was easily transformed into that of a liminal cultural hero. / ■ •
The process of the development of the myth and of tlie change in the social
systems was one in which both were affected by the reflexive quality of
their relationship.

Of the mythic antagonists, tliere now remains but one, the peasant.
The knights rode out of the socio-political structure of Europe leaving
beliind nothing but the idea of being gentlemen. Engelmair's descendents,
wlio did not become gentlemen, still tilled the fields having given up
hope of dancing at court when the middle class moved in.

PART TWO
THE NEIDHART PLAYS AS WORKS OF THEATRICAL ART

CHAPTER FOUR
The Theatrical Origins of the Neidhart Plays

The primary concern of the portion of the theatrical analysis of
the Neidhart plays is to expose their antecedent theatrical forms. Al-
though there have been attempts at synthesis,^ scholarship relative to
the medieval theatre and its forms falls, roughly, into two categories--
that which maintains its origins are secular, and that which places its
beginnings within the liturgy of the Christian church. Although the
study of the Neidhart plays does not depend entirely on the theories of
the secular school, or claim refutation of those arguments concerning
Christian origin, the implications of the study affect both lines of
thought. Accordingly, both are treated below.

Those who hold that the origin of the theatre in the Middle Ages is

non-Christian posit as its source either the professional mime or pagan

• • 3

religious ritual. The ritualistic practices which are said to survive

in the secular drama of the Late Middle Ages, or in the much later folk

plays, are of the sort recorded by Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough.

^R. Pascal, "On the Origins of the Liturgical Drama of the Middle
Ages," in Modern Language Review, XXXVI (19413, 369-387.

■^Hermann Reich, Per f!imus (Berlin, 1903).

Robert Stumpf 1 , Kultspiele der Germanen als Urspung des mittel-
altcrlichen Dramas (Berlin, 1956); Benjamin HunningherT^fhe~Origin of
the Theatre (New York, 1961). '

86

87 '

They include the acts of dancing , leaping, mock marriage and mimed

death which the secularists consider homeopathic magic practices.

Adherents of tliis position view the Latin drama of the church primarily —

as a reaction to the popularity of the professional and/or pagan drama.

Scholars representative of the alternate view believe, variously,
tliat drama sprang from the Christian mass or that it sprang from the W-^"
office. In eitlier case, the latter group see the ritual of Christian
worship as the seed from which the elaborate religious drama of the Middle
Ages grew. The secular theatre of the Later Middle Ages, if it is treated
at all by mem.bers of this school, is seen as the ultim.ate product of a
secular trend in the religious drama.

Generally, both sides of the dispute have a common ground in that
they believe that religion generates drama at some stage in its develop- J
ment . The central question which separates them is not so much how drama
developed in the Middle Ages as it is from which religion did drama y
develop? The dispute has, in forensic terms, developed little "direct
clash" except in the case of Benjamin Hunningher's work. His efforts are

James George Frazer, The New Golden Bough, ed. Theodor H. Gaster
(New York, 1961), pp. 50-57773, 80-81^

0. B. Hardison, Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages
(Baltimore, 1965). ~

Chief among others, Leon Gautier, Histoire de la Poesie Liturgique:
les Tropes (Paris, 1886); U'ilhelra Creizenach, Geschichte des neueren
Drama (Halle, A. S., 1893); E. K. Cham.bers, Medieval Stage (Oxford, 1903);
Karl Young, The Drama in the Medieval Church (Oxford, 1933); Hardin
Craig, The English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages (London, 1960).

■7

dismissed for less than substantial reasons at times. For instance,
Hunningher's carefully reasoned argument and cautious conclusions were
treated with a one line rejection by 0. B. Hardison, "... and this
challenge, because it begins by ignoring the obvious, has come to nothing

o

. . ."° Perhaps because he considers the obvious so obvious, Mr. Hardison
does not choose to elaborate. One can presume, however, Hardison 's
position is that the corpus of plays which form the basis for his con-
clusions number in the hundreds, whereas Hunningher has but three plays
from the High Middle Ages with which to establish his theory of secular
origin. This is hardly a valid attack since secular drama, if it existed
at all, would have been part of the oral tradition (not literary) by
reason of the lack of time, money, literacy, and inclination of its
practitioners. Ultimately, the quarrel between the groups may be a

7
The bulk of German scholarship on the subject is dismissed as being
Nazi-oriented; see Richard Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages (Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1952), p. 199; Walshe, Medieval German Literature, "p. 405,
Prior to the Second World War, however, Neil C. Brooks of the University
of Illinois reviewed Stum.pfl's Kultspiele der Germanen in a critical,
but positive, fashion. See Journal of English and Germanic Philology,
XXXVIl 9193S), pp. 300-305. Also" see F. E.~Sandbac"h , Modern Language
Review, XXXII, (1937), pp. 317-322. Hardison, in Christian Rite,
assaults the secular school for its lack of historical data, adopts the
axioms of its position (pp. x-xi) , attacks his predecessors Chambers and
Young for a super-abundance of data (pp. 8, 26) and the evolutionary
basis of their histories (p. 33), and in several cases falls into
instances of his own doctrine. He cites Honorius of Autun (c. 1100) to
the effect that the mass is tragical and the priest a tragedian (pp. 39-41)
and neglects to say that Honorius also wrote that no actor (joculatorcs)
had any chance of redemption for "in their whole aim they are Satan's
ministers." In the former instance, Honorius is speaking metaphorically,
in the latter instance, he was rendering explicit judgement against an
ancient ever-present threat to the church, the professional actor. See
Allardyce Nicoll, Masks, Mimes, and Miracles (New York, 1931), p. 168.

o

Hardison, Christian Rite, p. vii.

89

semantic one. Certainly if one used the term drama to mean a particular
literary form, the antiquity and primacy of tlie Christian drama cannot
be contested. This, however, does not preclude the possibility of the
production of plays on secular themes which, from a theatrical viewpoint,
may have been more artistic than the turgid mysteries. As Hunninglier
points out, Adam de la Halles' Jeux de la Feuillee [1262) is better

written from a modern viewpoint than any extant religious drama from any

9

century.

The relationship of the study of the Neidhart plays to the two
schools of thought on medieval theatre is one which is not easily
identified with either position. Discussion of the pagan religious
rituals in connection with the Neidhart plays will be waived for the
moment because there is no direct evidence that either the fourteenth
and fifteenth century plays, or their antecedent theatrical fox'ms , had
anything to do with a religious ceremony per se. The subsequent discussion
of the plays and pagan practices will be based on the idea that a distinc-
tion exists bet\;'een pagan usage and pagan religious usage. The relation-
ship of the theatrical antecedents of the Neidhart plays to the theory
of the Christian origin of the drama is that of being another liistoric
instance which is inexplicable in term.s of that theory.

Since the relationslrip of this study to the two major schools of
tliought on medieval theatre has been examined, discussion of the main
topic can proceed.

^Hunninglier, The Origin of the Theatre, pp. 82-83.

90

The theatrical origins of the Neidhart plays fall into three cate-
gories. The first two of these categories are similar in that both are
called tanzspiele^^ (dance-plays) by Hintner and Gusinde, the authors of
the major works on the subject plays. These "dance-plays" are subdivided
into two subordinate divisions, bauertanzspiele (peasant-dancc-.plays) and
rittertanzspiele C^^night-dance-plays) . The third source of theatrical
influence on the Neidhart plays is the Christian drama of the Middle Ages.
These influences on the fourteenth and fifteenth century Neidhart plays
will be discussed in the order given above.

The bauertanzspiel , which bears directly upon the development of the
later Neidhart plays, is recorded in three Middle High German manuscripts.
They are the Weingarten M. S. (early fourteenth century); the large
Heidelberg M. S. (early fourteenth century) ; and the Preussische Staats-
bibliothek M. S. Germ, fol . 779 (fifteenth century). ^^ The date of their
origin might be anywhere from 1215, when Neidhart is first known, to
some one hundred years later. "^ Along with other works, each of the above
manuscripts contains poetry of Neidhart von Reuental and the Neidhart ■
apocrypha. The bauertanzspiel described in the Neidhart apocrypha opens
with a description of winter's recent demise. To mark its passing,
Fridebolt , a peasant, and his companions are preparing for a dance with
swords both long and wide. At that point, the narrator begins to directly
address the company:

^*^"Beitrlige zur Kritik," VI, 42-59; Neidliart mit dem Veilchen, pp.
218-222; Karl Weiss, Geschichte der Stadt Wien, I (Wien, 1882), 538.

^^Olive Sayce, Th.e Poets of the Minnesang (Oxford, 1967), p. xxiv.

Singer, Neidhart Studien, pp. 7-8, believes the poem may be older
than Neidhart. Neidhart 's view from the cask might liave been a later
accretion.

91

Otte, should tlie Eastt-r play come this way
Let me know your mind!
KUnze, you have many friends,
Tell me how it goes with love.
Fridebolt lead the dance from here

Bind your sword on the left.

Be happy for KUnze 's sake!

Lead us before the high court gates. ,,

Let the dance ride out upon the meadow.

Since the first line of address in the poem contains the word

A

Osterspiei (Easter play) , and since Grimm notes no meaning for the term
which does not denote some kind of theatrical performance at spring, ^ it

might be said that the study of the Neidhart plays relates in a negative

/
way to the theories of Christian origin of drama in the Middle Ages. J

Certainly the subsequent lines in the passage above make it abundantly

clear that this "Easter play" was not in the Christian tradition. It

apparently employed swords, may-brides, and mutilation, and had nothing

to do with the passion of Christ.

The poem's narration continues by praising May time and the love it

brings to all. The apocryphal poet begins to tell of how the countryside

is filled with gaudily dressed peasants all converging on Zeislmaur, a

village. In his words, "... and so they gather here,/ Many more tlian

a hundred./ They lierd themselves upon the green/ To form a new group." "^

Next, they are named in an endless and liilarious fashion. "... Lumpolt,

Rumpolt, Kumpolt/ . . . Ezzel, IVezzel, Brezzel, and the younger Lanze.""

■'■•^Haupt, Neidliart's Lieder, p. xxxviii.

l^Jacob and WiUielm Grimm, Deutsches WUrtei'buch (Leipzig, 1854), p. 1380.

Haupt, Neidhart 's Lieder, p. xlvii.

Ibid., pp. xlvii-xlix.

92
At that point, the poet declares, "Now I have of these empty louts/ Named
full fifty-two," and he goes on to complain that there are yet three
whom he has not mentioned who liailed him before tlie court. Of the latter,
he says, "... They think tliemselves so fx-ee that I must be stepped
upon."^''^ At that point, activity on the green suddenly begins.

A. ] Q

Giselbreht pounds upon a dog hide.

Limmenzun and Friderun press against the crowd.

Now a play begins, v^'hich was too mucli before such

a rich bride. ^^
I lay squeezed in a barrel

Near by the wine a

Until there began a conflict I

Ifliich resulted in great iiijury. #

In the passage pertaining to that activity, several incidents occur

which are of interest. The text states: "Here begins a spiel (or play)."

Unfortunately, tliis in itself does not guarantee that the event or action

in question is neces.sarily a schauspiel or theatre piece. Spiel has the

same wide range of meaning in German as "play" does in English. Thus,

the term might have been used simply as a reference to some non-serious

and non-dramatic act. It could be that the play was a simple round or

garland dance which ended in a conflict. There are, liowever, three bits

of evidence which tend to legislate against these non-theatrical possi-

bilities. The first is the previously noted fact tliat the word Osterspiel

was usually reserved for theatrical performances, especially of the

Christian variety. The second piece of evidence is found in the statement

l^Ibid.

18

Ibid. , p. 1.

19 >^-

Giselbreht I'ller in des hundes liuit. Probably a drum made of a dog

skin. Ibid.

20 '^

. . . vor emer richen bruite. Sarcastically spoken, perhaps

referring to tlie may-bride celebration.

93

A

"Giselbreht pounds upon a dog hide." This may have meant a drum, and

if that were so, it would parallel the medieval custom of playing pipes

and otiier musical instruments prior to a theatrical performance: see

the Sterzing Scenario (232, 237). The final fact which lends credence

to the belief that the action or activity in question was a theatrical

item Cplay) stems from the phrase "Limmenzun and Friderun press against

the crowd." In tlie medieval outdoor theatre, it was custom for the

wegmacher to make way through the crov\fds for the performers. In view

of tliat, Limmenzun and Friderun may well have been the ones designated

to perform that function before the start of the poem's tlieatrical event:

see the Sterzing Scenario (231, 236). Tliough the evidence offered above

does not completely over-rule the possibility that the spiel to which the

poem refers was non-theatrical, it makes it a distinct pi'obability .

Immediately following the passage cited above comes one in which

the cause of the conflict of the bauertanzspiel becomes apparent.

Lord Engelmair was deceived,

He and his companions.

He broke the mirror

21

IVliich cro'.i'ned Fridrauna's flowers of May.

Tlie above four lines represent the apocrypha's version of the incident
which caused the historical Neidhart von Reuental such anguish. Signifi-
cantly, however, there is a difference in the rendering of it in this
later version. In this reference, both Lord Lngelmair and his companions
are deceived. The reason for that deception becomes evident in the

2 1

Oberthalben ires mein er Friderun den speigel brach. The meaning

of the phrase is obscure. Haupt holds that mein = meinol = mens veneris.

Ibid. , p. li. Singer, Neidhart Studien, p. 6, suggests mein = meien -

bouquet.

94

subsequent action.

Then began a rumble and a brawl,
Tlien I saw two new swords, each with a fine liilt,
Uliich caused Lord Engelmair to be set on a stilt.
I was reassured.

Ulien someone [a companion] joined me
For sliould they have known my whereabouts,
I should have no longer lived.
I bel\aved accordingly,
I saw fifteen suits of iron
Four who were . . . [missing] guests.
On them were hung doublets.
Engelmair 's penance remained the same:

He went about with his left leg in a spoon [billed borer] ^^
His cleverness made me sad.
Holerswan and Bezeman

Were cut to the quick, '

Not that I cared much.
They could have all died..
,1 didn't wait any longer. Lord Ber
Was making a conquest before the ladies.
Hard there on, I heard a word
IVhich caused me some alarm.
Erkenbolt called from up above in the lane
"Never call me friend again, if Lord Neidhart does

not lie within the cask!"
May God with the same dispatch of my departure ever

curse these odious louts!

It is important to note that Lord Engelmair' s rash act (the breaking
of tlie mirror) produces the mutilation on which the fourteenth and fifteenth
century plays focus so much attention. In tliis version, however, it is not
Neidhart who revenges this disgrace, rather, it is the deceived companions
of Engelmair. Moreover, it is not even suggested that Fridrauna was
Neidhart 's girl friend. She seems to be the consort of the peasants, as
she was in tlie later plays. One other feature in this passage is worth

22

LOffel = spoon-billed borer (posthole digger) in mountainous Germany.

Engelmair probably put the stump in tlie concavity and stumped about on

the handle. The sound of the word lOffel is amusing to Germans. It also

means a foolish person and is conjoined with otlier v;ords in nonsense

poems, see Grimm, Deutschcs WOrterbuch, p. 1123.

7 X

"Ilaupt , Neidhart 's Licder, pp. 1-lii.

95

noting. Tl\e historical Neidhart von Reuental's visits to the peasants
were always open, and the peasants seemed for the most part to tolerate
his presence even if they didn't care for tlie attentions he addressed
toward their women. Here in the Neidhart apocrypha, hovjevcr, there is a
radical departure from, that state of affairs. The peasants are engaged
in an activity which ihey definitely don't want Neidhart to see, and
Neidhart appears well aware of the danger involved in his voyeurism.

Considering the above actions and conditions, and in particular the
difference between the apocruphal poem and the descriptions of attitudes
and conduct in the poetry of Neidhart von Reuental, several items might

be posited in regard to the action depicted in that apocryphal literature.

/■
First, the Easter play to which the poem refers could have been a sword J

dance play of the variety which still survives in the folk tradition of

England and Germany. Secondly, Fridrauna may have been the traditional

name for the may-bride who helped usher in spring and her "mirror" may -^

liave been a figure in the sword dance. Thirdly, if the above is true,

the sword dance may have been a kind of secular miorality play which

dramatized the need for peasant solidarity. In the paragraphs which follow

these propositions will be treated in the order given above.

The association of the sword dance with German coalitions is at

least as old as the observations of Tacitus (9S A. D.). In the spring,

large tribal assemblies would gather to make plans for war, to allocate

land, and to initiate new members into the adult society. The initiation

ceremony included arming the youth with a wooden javalin (framm) before

96

the open assembly. At that moment the youth became a free adult who was
at the bottom of the kin/political system of ranking, but nevertheless
tlie peer of every simple warrior in the war band associations (commitatus)
Tacitus notes that the young men did a dance which involved swords. He
makes no definite connection between the dance and the initiation rites,
but a recent cross-cultural study makes it appear likely that any event
relating to war band solidarity would possess some dangerous test or
hazing as a prerequisite to membership. The sword dance, since it is
known to have existed at the time, would appear to have been ideally
suited to the needs of that initiation practice.

The sword dance as a type of amusement and initiation has no certain
history through the High Middle Ages, but mention of it begins again in
the fourteenth century. According to Stumpfl and Richard Wolfram, at
this point in history and thereafter, it is definitely associated with
secret societies." Wiether these societies were pagan religious
survivals or simply social fraternities is debatable and not important to
the discussion at hand. The point of the foregoing discussion simply is
that, since sword dances functioned as ritual work in Germanic coalitions
from the earliest times to the twentieth century, there is a liklihood
that peasant groups in the High Middle Ages might have made use of them
as a rite of intensification.

"^Tacitus Germania xxiv. 1.

25

Young, Initiation Ceremonies, pp. 75, 79, 81.

" Kultspiele der Germanen, pp. 14-15; "Sword Dances and Secret
Societies" in Journal of English Folk Dance and Song, I {1932), 38-39.

97 ,

The pr:mai-y evidence found in the Ncidhart apocrypha suppoi'ts such
a supposition; it states specifically that tlie avowed purpose of the
gathering of the peasants is to "form a new group." This assembly is
the occasion for much singing, dancing, and ultimately the witnessing
of the Easter play, an activity that clearly will involve swords or
sword play. In the poem, Fridebolt, who is to lead the dance, is
specifically instructed to bind his sword to his left side. Then, later,
it becomes apparent that two new swords are the cause for the loss of
Engelmair's leg. In all, the suggestion that the play was a sword dance
play seems well founded.

The second issue to be considered involves the plot and motifs
associated with this sv;ord dance play. In it, the character Fridrauna
seems to be the injured party, for it was her mirror that was broken. It
should be noted, however, it is not Fridrauna who exacts revenge with
the two swords, and moreover, since Neidhart was ' in the wine barrel, it
is reasonable to assume that he did not iiijure Engelmair. This leaves
Engelmair's deceived companions as the ones who seek revenge and cause
Engelmair "to be set on stilts." Their discontent obviously revolved
about the fact that Engelmair would be so rash as to break Fridrauna 's
mirror. The questions naturally provoked by this series of events are:
Vvlto was Fridrauna, iind wliy did tlie peasant's value her mirror so much?

Fridrauna' s identity rem.ains a mystery to all of the scholars whose
works were surveyed by this writer. The many instances of the use of the
names of Engelmair and Neidhart are recorded in sources cited in Chapter

98

Tlu'ce of this study and the meaning of traditional names receives special
attention in Griiimi's Mytliology, but nowhere in tlie available literature
is there a suggestion relative to the name Fridrauna outside the Neidhart
material. Interestingly, however, the very source of puzzlement lends a
clue to the mystery. Neidhart was a naturalistic poet. For example,
when he expressed his delight at the misfortune of the several peasants
who were drafted into the Duke's army, he notes parentlietically that one
of tliem had to buy two pieces of leather for his shins. ^'^ That kind of
careful attention to detail is observed in every aspect of liis poetry from
its description of the winter scene to references to tlie atmosphere in a
peasant house. One even gets a sense of character in his descriptions of
how a peasant walked or danced. Nowhere in his work, however, is tliere a
descriptive phrase concerning Fridrauna.

Two very different interpretations of this fact suggest themselves
immediately. There is the possibility that with the character Fridrauna
Neidhart von Reuental deliberately created a cypher in the midst of a
completely naturalistic work in order to excite the imagination of liis
auditors. Thus, conceivably, it could have been an attempt to draw the
auditors into the narrative via his previously acknowledged capacity for
naturalistic detail and tlien leave it to their imagination to establish
or understand the depth of feeling Neidhart had for liis mistress and liis
hatred for the man who did her injury. On the other hand, the absence of
any detailed description of Fridrauna may have resulted from the fact
that her identity was known to everyone. If she were a parochial "spirit

27

Ilaupt, Neidhart 's Lieder, p. 151

99

of spring," Neidhart's love for her would be completely understandable
witliout further justification on his part. Additional support for this
belief comes from the fact that though the peasant maids express their
love for Neidhart quite openly, Neidhart reserves his moments of tender-
ness for Fridrauna. It may have been that Fridrauna was the traditional
name for the may-bride mentioned in the second passage cited above.

If Fridrauna was an allegorical name, the next question which must
be answered is what is the meaning of the mirror? Though no statement
of absolute certainty can be made about the meaning of the mirror,
there is support for the notion that Fridrauna' s mirror was a circular
figure of interlocked swords in the sword dance play. There are two
lines of evidence which tend to confirm this hypothesis; the first is
philological and the second historical.

At the same time that Tacitus was writing on the manners of the
German people (first century A. D.), a word was being introduced into the
Old High German language. The Old High German word spegel (mirror) comes
from the Latin speculum. "^ (Since the traditional wooden javelins of
the primitive Germans were replaced by steel swords of the Roman variety
shortly after initial contact with the Romans, it is possible that a
figure of speech was born which involved both the sword and the mirror.)
Evidence which would tend to support this association includes the fact
that, at the end of the Middle Ages, the term spegelfechten is first
found in written works. It literally meant "mirror fighting" and

^^Grimm, Deutsches WOrterbuch, p. 2222,

100
geaerally denoted any ceremonial display oi- use of swords--a mock battle, ^
As a noun, mirrox' meant not only a device which cast reflections, but

metaphorically, a standard of what ought to be, as "mirror to majesty"

30
(in German, Sachsenspiegel , law of the Saxons). In addition to these

meanings, Spiegel was used in conjunction vv'ith other words to indicate a

likeness to the form (round or oval) of a mirror. For instance, spiegel-

geK'olbe (mirror vault) refers to the curved understructure of a vaulted

•7 1

ceiling, while the spiegel of a ship was the plan form of its bottom.
The principle established in both of the above cases is tliat , as a symbol,
the word spiegel is applicable to any oval or circular sliapcd device
which supports some other thing.

Support for the special use of the word "mirror" can be found in
theatre history. Although there is no recorded instance of using the
German term spiegel for the interlocked circle of swords, in the
traditional English play, there is an example of the use of tlie word
"mirror" for this dance figure. In fact, the example of this use 'which
can be found in the Revesby Sword Play slieds light on more than just the
mystery of Fridrauna's mirror. The Revesby play is the earliest of tlie
extant English folk dramas and in it, "Father Fool" and l^is sons are
having a conversation about a mirror one of the sons (Pickle Herring)
has just "purchased."

Fool. Well, what dost thou call tins very pretty thing?

P. H. 'Ally, I call it a fine large looking-glass.

29

Ibid. , p. 2245.

^^Ibid. , p. 2234-2236.

31

lb2_d . , p. 2241. The rhomboid-shaped holes in a particular type of

snare net caused it to be called a spiegelgarn. Hie openings in a "rose"
or "mirror" sword dance figure are so shaped.

101

Fool. Let me see what I can see in this fine large
looking-glass. Hei-e's a hole througli it, I
see. I see, and I see!

P. H. You see and you see? And what do you see?

Fool. Marry, e'en a fool, just like the[e].

P. H. It is only your own face in the glass.

Fool. l\"ny, a fool may be mistain sometimes. Pickle
Herring. But what might this fine large
looking-glass cost the[e]?

P. H. Tliat fine large looking-glass cost me a guinea.

Fool. A guinea, boy? IvTiy, I could have bought as good a
one at my own door for three half -pence.

P. H. Ifliy fools and cuckolds has always the best luck!

Fool. That is as much to say tliy father is one.

P. K. Miy, you pass for one!

The Fool, keeping the glass all the while in his hands, says:

Fool. l\liy was thou such a ninnie, boy, to go to ware a
guinea to look for thy beauty where it never was?
But I will shew thee, boy, how foolish thou has
wared a good deal of good money.

Then th.e Fool flings the glass upon the floor, jumps upon it;
then the dancers everyone drav\'ing out his own sword, and the
Fool dancing about the room. Pickle Herring takes him by the
collar and stiys :

P. H. Father, father, you are so merrilly disposed this

good time there is no talking to you! Here is very
bad news.

Fool. Very good news? I am glad to hear it; I do not
hear good news every day.

P. H. It is very bad news!

Fool. 'ATiy, what is the matter now, boy?

P. H. We have all concluded to cut off your head.-^^

32

E. K. Chambers, The English Folk Play [London^ 1933), pp. 108-109.

102

It is apparent from this English sword play text tliat the mirror
in question is an interlocked circle of swords. It is higlUy prized by
the kinsman of Fatlier Fool, but he, like Hngelmair in tlie Greater
Neidhart play, rashly flings it to the ground and breaks it. The Fool
in the English play "dies" by having his head placed in the open center
of the mirror of interlaced swords which would be, ij\ essence, a multi-
edged guillotine. This business actually occurs in many English folk
dances and, when properly executed, the actor (fatlier Fool) would not
lose his head. If the business were improperly executed, however, or if
a dance variant required a symbolic representation of it, the character's
head could be tlie forfeit. Tliis mixture of symbolism and actual danger
in the dance has bearing on Engelmair's fate,

I'lie German sword dance included a feature involving the mirror v/liich
was not known in the English folk dance. The leader mounted the circle
of interlocked swords and danced at shoulder height. Tlie Emperor

Maximillian is pictured standing on such a mirror of swords although

34
the weapons were placed on the ground. Records of later German sword

dance plays indicate the leader stood upon swords which had been placed

on a kneeling person's back, thus reducing the danger involved in the feat.

Even so, in the German sword dance, the following lines are uttered by

the leader as he steps up onto the swords: "On swords and daggers up I go./

7 7

•^Douglas Kennedy, England's Dances Cl-o'iJon, 1950), pp. 63-64.

■^^Kurt Mcschke, Schwerttanz und Schwerttanzspiel im germanischen
Kulter Kreis (Leipzig, 1931), p. 114.

103
I'd been smarter if I'd stayed below." -^ The German sword dance in this
instance differs from the English because the threat to the leader is
directed not at his head, but at his lower extremities.

If the foregoing analysis is correct and the comparison of the play
in the Neidhart apocrypha with the Revesby Sword Play is justified, the
action and motifs surrounding the crises in the apocryphal literature
becomes clear. UTiat was veiled in symbolic extension in the poetic
narrative of the apocryphal Neidhart (the breaking of Fridrauna's mirror),
becomes manifest in action. If Engelmair, the peasant chief, broke the
mirror of interlocked swords which symbolized the peasant coalition, he
might indeed lose a leg. That was the moral of the play. The peasants
who had "gathered to form a new group" inculcated the values of solidarity
by the showing of a negative example. The group was to support the
leader, literally and figuratively, and the leader for his part was not
to break the ties which supported him through ubermout (rashness).

The bauertanzspiel (peasant-dance-play) , called an Easter play in
the Neidhart apocrypha, is but one part of the theatrical heritage of
the Neidhart plays. Although the para-theatrical activities which were
associated with spring probably had their origin in the primitive rites
of the early Germans, the courtly analogues to the peasants' brawls,
drunks, and may-bride celebrations were considerably different in their
outward appearance. The rittertanzspiel (knight-dance-play), which is
the second major influence on the Neidhart plays, involves the canon of

■zc

J. Amman, "Nachtr^ge zum Schwerttanz" in Zeitschrift fUr deutsches
Altertum, (Berlin, 1890), 200.

104

liigher love and tlie ritual of courtly behavior of the Higli Middle Ages.
The manifest function of holding court in medieval times was to j
adjudicate suits, punisli wrong-doing, announce new plans and seek advice.
A latent function of this important event was an intensification of the
bonds which held overlord to vassels. The importance of that latent
function is made apparent by the fact tliat much of the strength of the
Norman kings of England derived from their ability to conmiand of every
peer in the realm attendance at court three times a year.-^" In the mid-
portion of tlie twelfth century, a replicate court of love was established
by Eleanor of Aquitaine. That idea of courtly love spread, as did
Eleanor's children, into every corner of feudal Kurope. In older iiis-
tories, the importance of chivalry and courtly love in the affairs of
medieval life was greatly stressed. V/liile modern scholars discount it
as existing for the most part only for love-sick troubadors and point to

che fact it had no "real" function in the social-economic organization

37
of feudalism, the fact remains that it was capable of supplementing

the latent function of the political court. The bonds of feudal loyalty

for the Du.ke were strengthened by bonds of courtly love for the Duchess. ■

The contract of courtly love is conceived in the same terms as the

parallel feudal contract between lord and man. In poems written in Old

Provencal, the masculine midons (My Lord) is a form of address directed

to the beloved lady. In Germany, the term holt referred to the

■^"Cantor, Medieval History, p. 540.
^^Ibid. , pp. 417-419.

T Q

^^'Saycc, Poets of the Muiiicsang, p. xii,

105

relationship of lord to man and man to lord. The lord condescends and

•70
the man submits; so it was with the tie of courtly love. Service

(dienst) to a lady produced reward (Ion) for the man. At this point,

however, the court of love ceased to parallel the political court.

In between service and reward there was a weir of enormous propor-
tions. The existence of the court of love as a replicate and supporting
substructure to the political court was dependent on a degree of separa-
tion between the real and imagined concerns of the populace. There
were limits of behavior or behavioral license under the court of love.
Great service could not entail such great reward that a bastard child
resulted. Adultery among the governing class was not only venal, but
treasonous. In a sense, the story of Lancelot and Guinevere is like the
story of Engelmair and Fridrauna's mirror, in that both are moralities
which have to do with the rash breach of customary behavior. IVlien the
weir which ought to have separated them was overcome or circumvented,
the result was injury to all parties concerned.

Considering the court of love further, it was a triadic rather than
a dyadic system. An insulating third term prevented direct satisfaction
of the primary rights and obligations. Love provoked valor which was
expressed in the tournament.'^*-' Valor provoked love which was expressed
lawfully in any way but in bed. Chiefly, love was expressed in the
Minnesang, the love poem, and in dance.

One of the forms of poetry which paralleled the relationship between

39lMd.

■^"^T. P. Cross and W. A. Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere (Chicago, 1930),
p. 81.

106

man and woman in the system of courtly love was the wechsel. In this

kind of poetry, the lovers exchanged sentiments in an indirect fashion,

either by paired monologues or by speaking to a third person, a messenger.

In others, the lovers remained separated or were separated by the merkaere

(the spy or watclier) or by a watchman (in the later Dawn Songs). '^■'■

The rittertanzspiel was the kinetic representation of the system of

courtly love. It involved union, separation, and then reunion. The

first evidence of a mimed courtly dance appears in the Rudlieb, an

eleventh century Latin courtly poem.

The youth springs boldly up, against him is his maiden.
He is the falcon like; she glides like the swallow;
No sooner are they near than they shoot past each other;
He seizes her with ardor, but she flees his grasp.
And no one who beholds them both could ever hope
To equal them in dance, in leap, or gesture. '^^

Here one sees the basic patterns of approach and avoidance being

formed. Tne youth seizes the maiden, but she eludes his grasp only to

begin the process anew. By the thirteenth century, this basic theme was

expressed in mimed courtly dance, as in the following excerpt of the choral

dance Roman de la Rose.

Then came two damsels 'tired with taste

That Venus ' s self had not disgraced,

And suited well their dainty dresses

And wondrous plaits that bound their tresses:

Their kirtles thin but reached the knee.

Through which their forms showed pleasantly.

I saw the twain toward Mirth advance

With agile leap and darting glance.

Then both flew forward with a bound,

Sayce, Poets of the Minnesang, p. xv.

Cart Sachs, World History of Dance, tr. Bessie SchtJnberg (New
York, 1937), p. 276". ' "

107

Just missed a kiss, then flung them round

As though they feared some v.'rong they'd cJone,

Then lovingly embraced anon.

And then once more did they retreat,

A-playing with their winsome feet

A thousand antic turns; so quaint

And strange they were, that I should paiiot

Their wonders feebly did I try

To show the supple subtlety

With which their lithe light bodies swayed;

Such tumult in my breast it made

As never dance and song I deem

Had done before in sooth or dream. ^-^

In this courtly dance, the two maidens mime the essential elements

of courtly love: they fly forward to kiss, but retrx-?at as if they had

done something wrong; then tliey reunite to begin ancsj the cycle. The

closeness of tliis mimed dance to a full-blovm theatrical piece becomes

more evident if one notes that the maidens are weari.ng costumes which

were not the customary dress of that century. The garments worn by

thirteenth century men and women were invariably long. The men of leisure

wore their tunics to the calf and women's dresses we:re even longer. ^'^ The

girls' short kirtles could only have been representative of a short chiton

from the classical period. Thus, the lines, "Then came two damsels 'tired

with taste/ That Venus ' s self had not disgraced," m&y have indicated an

attempt to impersonate some pair of antique lovers cf whom they had read

in Ovid."^^

'^^Ibid. , p. 277.

Lucy Barton, Historic Costume for the Stage (Boston, 1963), p. 130.

' Courtly love was the result of the fusion of Ovid with the Arthurian
legend in the history of Britain written by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1138).
Ulrich von Lieclitenstein' s ride through Germany dressed as Venus is paralleled
in Ovid's Heroi'des ix, when Hercules dresses in femiaine attire for the
love of 0;nphalee. See Cross and Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere, pp. 79, 91.

108

The rittertanzspiel which has a bearing on the Neidhart plays is
that of the violet dance. The origins of the festival to which it

belongs are lost in antiquity, but Gusinde has no doubt that ultimately

46
it too belonged to the folk tradition. Uncertain as its origins may

have been, the union of the violet motif with the rittertanzspiel

was officially recorded during the reign of Duke Leopold the Sixth of

Austria (1193-1230).

The historic tie between the bauertanzspiel and the rittertanzspiel
may have been the result of the policy of Leopold's successor, Fredrick
the Second. UTien Fredrick discovered his half-common, half-noble
administrators (the ministeriales) were becoming too independent, he
encouraged peasant independence as a counterforce. This short-sighted
policy may have produced an actual incident which resembled the robbing
or despoiling of the violet, which occurs in the Neidhart plays. In any
case, the legend of Neidhart Fuchs records that the violet was removed
from the site of court and taken to Zeislmauer vsihere it was placed on a
"shrine" (may-pole) and was subsequently the focus of a dance. /

Exposition of the theatrical origins of the Neidhart plays is complete
if the Doctor and Devil scenes are identified as borrowings from the
religious drama. As such, they represent a fifteenth century cross
influence of motifs and conventions between the two genres and bear
little relationship to the Neidhart tradition. These personages, the

Though no specific folk festival involving the violet is known,
see Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, pp. 11-13.

H. De Boor, Die hOfische Literatur (Munich, 1953), p. 366, cited
by Hatto and Taylor, Songs of Neidhart, p. 5.

109

Doctor and the vegative demon, were originally borrowed from the pagans

by the Christians, and it has been established that at the time the

48
Neidhart plays were written, they were once more in secular hands.

The ultimate origins of the Neidhart plays, and pei'haps in a loose

sense all secular plays of the Middle Ages, are found in the rites of

/
the primitive Germans. The symbols and rituals appear to have survived ll

the loss of their original meaning and function and to have taken on new

significance in the High Middle Ages. The sword dance which may have

been an initiation rite of the early Germans became part of a secular

Easter play which inculcated the need for solidarity in peasant coalitions. '"■-'

In a like fashion, a motif of pre-Christian tradition, the violet, became

/
the center of a pastoral courtly play which served to strengthen the ^

feudal bonds of the nobility. The union of the two plays with one another,

and with the brief scenes from the religious drama, constitute the whole "^

of the theatrical precendent of the Neidhart plays.

"^^Gusinde, Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, pp. 107-108, 189-197.

CHAPTER FIVE
The Descriptive Analysis oC tlie Ncidliart Plays

The purpose of this chapter is to expose salient features of the
four late medieval Neidhart plays. The dramatic significance of the
play's motifs and certain aspects of their form will be treated. While
the plays will be treated individually, certain of their features will be
coiiipared or contrasted in order to acliicve the maximum possible deliin-
ination. Tlie order in which tlie plays v;ill be examined is as follows:
The Lesser Neidhart , the St. Paul, the Sterzing Scenario, and the Greater
Neidhart . The Lesser Neidhart, written in the fifteenth century, will be
treated first and apart from the other three works inasm.uch as it u'as
associated with the winter festival, Fasching, and reflects the influence
of that association. The subsequent progression from the St. Paul
through the Greater Neidhart represents a movement from the simplest to
the most complex of the three plays.

Before treating the plays individually, it is interesting to note
that, aside from their common theatric?.! antecedent, they liave a conmion
origin in the literary genre denoted by the Old High German word laik
wliich meant dance and play, as opposed to the epic narrative. Tliis dis-
tinction fits all of the works considered here in the sense that they are
in fact dramatic rather than lyric or epic. Moreover, the Greater Neidhart

110

Ill

and the Sterzing Scenario are plays which employ dance as a formal
element and, in addition, closely follow the canons of construction of
the Middle High German leich which is a descendent poetic laik.

The first of the plays to be considered, the Lesser Neidhart , relates
to the other three works only by virtue of its subject matter and its
common generic origin. Its structure varies considerably from the pattern
established by the other three Neidhart plays. Although the plot of the
Lesser Neidhart includes all of the basic elements of the Neidhart legend,
the disposition and relative emphasis of these elements conform more to
the pattern of plays associated with the winter festival known as Fasching
than it does that of the plays which celebrate the coming of spring.

The first respect in which the Lesser Neidhart resembles the Shrove-
tide plays, and hence differs from the spring festival plays, is that its
structure and treatment of the motifs are more comic than sericus. For
example, instead of condemning Neidhart and then ordering him banished
or killed, the Duchess in the lesser Neidhart rather tamely suggests he
ought to leave the countryside in order to keep from being jeered (226,195,
19). In addition, the finding of the ersatz violet is accomplished by
considerable discussion and a rather indelicate and presumably humorous
search, as the following lines suggest.

The Maiden speaks: '.

Say Neidhart, what has happened to you?
Have you mistaken a turd for a violet?

The Second Maiden speaks :

^Paul Merker and Wolfgang Stammler, Reallexikon der deutschen Literatur-
geschichte [Berlin, 1955), p. 40.

112

By your leave madum, you sliould know
The peasants have ci'apped the violet.
We u'ill damn them roundly.
We will look foi- it in the crap.

The Tliird Maiden:

Lady, let us push tlie crap away

And search the gravel with our hands,

(225, 193, 14)

Finally, the one serious consequence of the play involves tlie death
of one of the peasants who, like the characters in the English folk plays,
arises immediately because of the ministrations of Doctor Lauroin.

Tiie next feature v.'hich identifies the Lesser Neidhart as a Shrovetide
play is its relative lack of integration of motif and plot. Perhaps it
would be better to say that the integration which does exist is not based
on cause and effect. The Lesser Neidhart play, like the other Shrovetide
plays, bears some resemblance to Greek Old Comedy in that traditional

elements from their respective cultures are justaposed witlicut plot justi-

2
fication. One instance ol this is found wl\en Engelmair arrives "on

stilts" (226, 193, 52) quite without reason or explanation before the
battle lias begun. It was shown in Chapter One that "binding men to wood"
was a part of tlie rannon of the Neidhart myth. In the case of tlie Lesser
Neidhart play, it would appear its author discharged his obligation to
the mythical annon or tradition in the most expeditious fashion. Another
example of the incongrucnt union of a tiaditional element with tlie plot
of the play is found in the appearance of the doctor, tlie oldest regener-
ative figure in German literature.^ !Vithout \v'arning he suddenly appears

2
See Francis McDonald Cornford, 'Hie Origin of Attic Comedy (Cambridge,

1934). ' ~~

3
Leopold von Schroeder, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda (Leipzig, 1908),

p. 370. ~ " ■

113
in the play, heals the peasants, and just as suddenly disappears. This
can be contrasted with tlie detailed treatment given tliat regenerative
motif in the Sterzing Scenario. In it, the doctor sets up an office,
heals the peasants, provides a type of out-patient treatment, and finally
settles the bill. The tendency to bring together, or introduce, seemingly
incongruent traditional elements or motifs is a hallmark of the Shrove-
tide plays. The best evidence of this tendency doesn't appear in the
Lesser Neidhart, however, but in a play entitled Ein Spil von dem Herzogen
von Burgund. In the latter play, tlie conversion of the Jews is accomplished
by having them suckle "Tlie Great Mother Sow." Sybil, who moments before
subdued a fire-breathing dragon by the power of Jesus, and the Duke of
Burgund look on. IVhen Shrovetide plays of the type just cited are
considered, the Lesser Neidhart appears to be a relatively restrained
example of this tendency to synthesize disparate motifs.

The final aspects of the Lesser Neidhart play which separate it from
the three spring plays are its lack of the theme of love and its relatively
small use of the dance. In the Lesser Neidhart there is no suggestion,
as there is in the St. Paul, that the finding of the violet will assure
tlie bonds of courtly love between the Duchess and Neidhart. Similarly,
when it is compared to the Greater Neidhart, it contains nothing comparable
to the latter play's great emphasis on the difference between courtly
love and the baser love the peasants enjoy. For example, the Greater
Neidhart is so explicit in regard to love and the contrasts in love that

Adelbert von Keller, Fastnachtspiele aus dem fUnfzehnten Jahr-
hundert in Bibliothck -des litterarischen Vereins, XX'VIII (Stuttgart,
ITsl ) , 172 -FtT. ~~

114

it has Sussana, a courtly lady, pi'Otest to GUbcin "slie knows nothing of
love," while Kundl , a peasant girl, allows tluit if she is not satisfied
in love by one, "I take another twelve on the spot/ ... in the straw
and on the benches." The love motif in the Sterzing Scenario is not
explicit since only tlie first lines of speech are giver, but after a
floweiy introductory speech by Neidhart, the Duchess presents iiim with
the garland usually reserved for those pledged to serve their may-bride.
Insofar as the Lesser Neidhart is concerned, however, it lacks even this
type of implied love motif. The final differentiating aspect between the
Lesser Neidhart and the other plays is in the fact that it does not use
the dance as a prime formative element. In fact, there is only one
occasion in the entire play in which anyone dances. Tliat is tlie moment
at whicli Engclmair and his "clod companions" dance about the violet before
they desecrate it. In the spring plays, however, the dance is great in
scope and function. Indeed, the St. Paul could scarcely be understood as
a play witliout taking into consideration the use of mimetic dance, wliile
the Greater Neidhart and the Sterzing Scenario use dance as an integrating
poetic device.

The Lesser Neidhart play is characterized, then, by its comic treat-
ment of the story of Neidhart, its indifferent integration of plot and
motif, its lack of the tlieir.e of love, and its minimal, unstressed use of
dance. Ml of these traits are attributable for the most part to its
association v;ith the Shrovetide festival.

The next play of the Neidhart scries to be considered is the St. Paul.
It is an exercise in dramatic economy, compressing all of tlie essential

115
parts of the Neidhax't legeml into 58 lines of i-hymed couplets. Tliough it
is the earliest of the Neidhart plays (c. 1350), its literary value, if
judged by poetic standards alone, exceeds in merit all of the other works
on Neidliart. It might be considered one of the last of the works of
what is known as the "Silver Age" of medieval German literature rather
than the first of tlie raw efforts of the middle class.

The sparseness of its features can best be appreciated by reviewing
the controversy in German scholarship which developed in regard to its
completeness. The issue arose out of the brevity of the play's manuscript
and its few and relatively uninformative stage directions. The latter, for
example, consisted inerely of:

The Prologue: . . .

The Duchess speaks: . . .

Neidhart responds: . . .

Neidhart goes and puts the flower beneath the hat and says: . . .

He lifts the hat for the Duchess . . .

Neidhart responds loudly: . . .

Neidhart to the peasants . . .

The reader's first assumption is that this small text is hopelessly
incomplete. Not only does its size seem to preclude a com.plete action,
but its abrupt and dissatisfying ending seems to leave the issue hanging
in mid-air. Furthermore, one of the major episodes of the legend, the
punishment of the peasants, seems to be absent. Wilhelm Greizenach, in
his Geschichte des Neuron Dramas, holds that "... it is completely
unreasonable that in -fifty-eiglit lines a complete play text has been

116

handed down to us." Thus size alone seems, to Creizenach, to preclude
the possibility of the Lesser Neidhart being a complete play text. In
addition, he finds it significant that the "Proclamator" who opened
the play did not close it."

In another study of the play, however, Konrad Gusinde finds it
neither fragmentary nor disjointed.' In his judgement, it is a tanzspiel
containing not only dance, but implicitly understood mimed action. Heinz
Kinderman agrees with Gusinde 's conjecture that the play was acted by

Q

two spielleute and some supernumeraries, spielleute being the German
equivalent of the French jongleur and the English minstrel. If this is
true, an alternate and reasonable solution to the problem of its
completeness has been effected, since a supernumerary might have mimed
the missing episode involving the desecration of the violet. Further,
the plot requirements of the legend also could have been satisfied if
the spielmann playing Neidhart mimed the punishment of the peasants. In-
sofar as the controversy concerning the completeness of the play is con-
cerned, more significant evidence is given by its editor Schbnbach.
Schbnbach, noting the smallness of the play, included in his editorial
notes the fact that the play was written entirely on one page of the
Codex, even though there was more space on which to write, had the author
cared to do so. His justification, of course, is that insofar as the

^IVilhelm Creizenach, GesclUchte der neueren Dramas (Halle, A. S. ,
1911), I, 407.

^'Ibid.

'^Gusinde, Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, p. 31.

^Theater Geschichte Europas, I, 405.

^Antcn E. Schbnbach, "Ein altes Ncldhartspi el" in Zeitschrift fUr
deutsches Altertum, XL (1896), .372.

117
author was concerned the play was complete. Secondly, SchUnbach points
out that at the conclusion of t'le play's text, the schlusscb.nlJrkel or
scroll-work which signifies the end of an entry is drawn. As far as he
is concerned, the ending is not lost, rather the play was finished. In
the light of the solution to the problem offered by Gu.sinde and Kinderman,
and of the more or less conclusive evidence given by Schbnbach, one must
conclude that the work is complete.

Since the theme of love and the threat of serious consequences which
are a part of this small play were exposed as contrasting elements' in
the discussion of the Lesser Neidhart play, there remains little to be
said about it. In passing, it is worth noting that it relates to the
corpus of the German secular drama, as does the fourteentli century Interludium
de Clerico et Puella to English drama, in that it is the earliest extant
example of that genre. It differs from the English play, hov/cver, in that
its successive versions reflect extensive and significant changes. For
example, the Greater Neidhart, which is based on the St_. Paul theme and
plot, was the longest and most complex secular drama of the Middle Ages.

Analysis of the third and fourth plays considered here, the Sterzing
Scenario and the Greater Neidhart play, requires some preliminary comment.
There has been no controversy over the completeness of either play as
there was with the St. Paul, even though the Sterzing Scenario is a
director's prompt book with only the first several lines of each speech
given. Both have been subjected to faint praise fromi their chief
apologist, Gusinde, however, and have been roundly damned by their chief

118

critic, Hintner. Gusinde says of the Greater Neidhart that, in the
strictest sense, it is not a unified drama because the only integrating
elements are Neidhart 's character and his relationship to the peasants.
In turn, Hintner charges that the Greater Neidhart is no drama in any sense,
As Hintner sees it, it is merely a conglomeration of loose, poorly
related episodes. It would appear Gusinde and Hintner, possibly under

the influence of the doctrine of the "well-made play" and the dramaturgy

12
of Gustav Freytag, expected that a properly written play would progress

from exposition through complication, climax, and reaction to catastrophe.

Their negative evaluation of the play from this critical standpoint is

logical and well founded. For one thing, a Freytagian analysis of both

the Sterzing Scenario and the Greater Neidhart reveals that each is

comprised of not one, but two plays, that is, two complete actions.

Both plays have an initial segment in which the conflict is exposed, the

finding of the violet complicates the action, the climactic besmirching

of the violet occurs, followed by Neidhart's resultant fall from grace,

and the catastrophic punishment of the peasants. Neither play ends at

this point, however, and the prologue reappears and begins another segment

which ends either with the death of Neidhart in the Sterzing Scenario

or of Engelmair in the Greater Neidhart. Though it is obvious that, given

the premises from which Gusinde and Hintner work, no direct refutation

Gusinde, Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, p. 162.

Hintner, Beitr^ge zur Kritik, III, 52.

12

Gustav Freytag, The Technique of Drama, 5th ed., tr. Elias J.

MacEwan (Chicago, 1894).

119

of their observations is possible, there is a way to see the plays in a
kinder light.

There is a structural regularity in the Sterzing Scenario and the
Greater Neidhart which, although it is not easily discerned, is neverthe-
less present. Its existence was first suggested to this writer by
three isolated items: the structure of a religious play from the same
period [the Redentin Easter Play) , by Gusinde ' s observation that there
seemed to be a regular repetition of cognate lines in the Greater
Neidhart, and finally by the rhyme structure of a popular German poetic
form known as the leich.

The Redentin Easter Play is called the best of the medieval religious
drama in the German vernacular. ^^ Its merits stem mainly from its excel-
lence in poetic diction and deft handling of the obligatory action.
Despite the sophistication of its poetic and dramaturgical features, the
Redentin play, like the Neidhart plays, has not one but two complete
actions within it. The first portion closes with the harrowing Hell and,
immediately thereafter, the second portion begins with a scene which
bears a considerable resemblance to the Devils ' Caucus in the Greater
Neidhart. That circumstance prompts the question of why a playwright

who was obviously attentive to every other element of composition would
have been so careless as to join, intenuous^ fashion, actions that
appropriately could be two plays? The answer to the question may be
that the poetic concepts governing German plays in the Late Middle Ages

•^A. E. Zucker, The Redentin Easter_^lay in Record of Civilization:
Sources and Studies, XXXII (New York, 1941), ix. The purely theatrical
relationship of this play to the Neidhart plays is treated in Chapter Six

^^Ibid., p. 8.

120

may have dictated such a juxtaposition of disparate actions. Indeed,
some medievalists have found that the chief source of medieval humor
stems from ironic contrast; the placing of two notions such as "reason
and mortality" in the same context. Thus, examination of the plays
with the idea that their peculiar construction may be reproseiitative
of regularity rather than conglomeration seems to be \\'arranted.

The second impetus to the contention that an organizing principle
was observed in tlic construction of tliese plays comes from the fact
that there is a repetition of cognate lines in the Greater Neidhart
play. Indeed, Gusinde noted tliat a cycle of similar expressions seemed
to occur tliroughout the text. Since the diction and end rhyme are more
important than tlie m.eaning of the lines, the excerpt from Gusinde 's
analysis cited below has been left untranslated (5-20).

399,16 Got gab uns gel'dck und hail! 411,29 Got geb euch gluck und liail!

399.23 Ir solt varn an diser schar 426,16 Vart schon hie an discr scliar

(:Engelmar). (:Engelmar).

400.24 Anders ich muoss ligen tod. 436,19 Dass ich von hunger sc]\ierligtod ,
401,16 Schuler, pfaffen sein uner. 437,14 GnMdigor herr, die mllnich sein

uner

403,29 Nun wol an, alle geleich, 430,28 Nu wol an all geleich

Wir we lien tanzen v;aideleich, Und lat uns tanzen gar waidenleich.

412,11 nach meiner ger. vgl. 418,36 462,34 nach uiiser gcr. vgl. 449,2

412,13 y\ller erst ^ 460,16 464,17.

414,27 Ich wolt den schnbden schalk 452,26 Erwisch ich im pei dcm har,

Empor Ich zerrciss im sein haubt gar

Pei sein har gezogen han.

415,11 Ir sein wenig odor vil. 453,7 Unser sein wenig oder vil. vgl.

The cycle of repetitions in the example above averages about tliirty

pages in length, so with respect to this aspect of composition, one might

l^See Helen Adolf, "On Medieval Laugliter" in Speculum, XXII (1947) ,
251-253; and J. S. P. Tatlock, "Medieval Laughter" in Speculum, XXI (1946),
289-294.

Gusinde, Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, p. 159.

121

say tliat tlic play lias an excess of regulai'ity ra'dier than too little.
The third factor which would tend to support the possibility of
some type of structural integrity in the St or zing Scenario and the Greater
Neidhart play comes from one aspect of the poetic conventions observed
during this age. Specifically, the two part division of the lyric strophe
was time-honored in medieval poetry. The best example of this type of
division in English poetry is the sonnet. One will recall that the sennet
is composed of an octave and sestet. The first portion presents a general
theme, and the second portion draws some conclusion hased on the theme
presented in the octave. The German lyric strophe and the Italian and
English sonnets liave a common medieval origin -- the Provencal Alba. -^-^
Tlie cognate parts of tlie sonnet are in German the aufgesang and the

abgesang. The aufgesang is articulated into two stollen while the abgesang

1 R
remains a single unit.' These two parts V'/ere poetically unified by a

variety of means. It was acceptable to bridge the hiatus by making the

opening line of the abgesang metrically identical V';ith the ending of the

aufgesang, or by mirroring the entire metrical pattern of the first part,

or by using the same metric pattern throughout. This predilection for

dual poetic divisions in the medieval period of German literature led

eventually to the form known as the leich. The rhyme structure of the

leich offers a clue to the organization of the scenes in the subject

Neidhart plays.

1 7

IValshe, Medieval German Literature, pp. 82-85.

l^lbid.

122

Tlie leich was like the sonnet in tliat it could be constructed in

two parts. Its Latin equivalent, t'lie double -coursed sequence, was often

19

v;ritten in paired versicles wliich were metrical cognates. Although

the Icich developed in the period of Walther von der Vogelweide and
TannhUuser (thirteenth century), it reached its most complex state at
the time of Frawenlob (Heinrich von Meissen) during tlie early part of
the fourteenth century. Tlie middle class meistersingcrs , who wrote
throughout the period of the Neidhart plays, adopted it and made even
more intricate rhyme schemes than did their courtly predecessors.!
The rhyme scheme of tliese later poems was characterized by two unifying
principles. The first was simply a matter of opening and closing a stanza
witli the same sound, e.g. A, B, C, B, C, A, D, D, D, D, A. The second
principle involved tlie parallel structure, e.g. A//B, C, D, F., A//B
. . . S//T, U, V, W, S//T. Quite often both devices were employed, e.g.
A//D, M, N, 0 . . . A//T, U, V, W.^^ These rhyming principles, combined
with an intricate metric system, made the lei ch one of the most tightly
organized poetic forms ever conceived.

The Sterzing Scenario and the Greater Neidhart will be shown to be
something other than mere conglomerates. The combination of evidence ranges
from the similar form of the Redentin Easter Play through medieval German
prosody seems to clearly indicate that tlie two plays could liave been

19

For examples of the Latin two-course sequence, see Paul von iVinter-

feld, "Rhythmen und Sequenzen Studien" in Zeitschrift fUr deutsches
Altertum, XL (1907), 133-149. ""^

20

Extrapolated from works included in Karl Bartscli, Meisterlieder in

Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins, LXVIII (Stuttgart ,"TS62) , ''20~6-207.

123

intentionally created with a two part division. The resemblance of the
structure of the cognate scenes within the plays to the rhyme scheme of
the late medieval leich suggests there was a logical organizing principle
underlying tlieir construction.

Before an individual examination of the plays is undertaken, it
should be understood that scenes within plays cannot be related one to
the other in the same strict way that poetic elements are related. No
scene is to another scene as a given end rhyme is to an analogous end
rhyme. Thus, the correspondences between the scenes, and between tlie
major divisions of the plays, v;hich are given in the analysis below are
roughly congruent, not strictly analogous. For example, when Neidhart
is deputized to discover the violet by the Duchess and Elschenprecht , a
peasant, is deputized to the same thing by Engelmair, the peasant chief,
a similarity can be said to exist albeit the scenes have obvious differences
at other levels. The congruences between scenes claimed below is made
with the above stipulation in mind.

The Sterzing Scenario is organized in a way which most resembles
the first example given in the discussion of the leich (A, B, C, B, C, A,
D, D, D, D, A). That is, the principle integrative device between the
two major divisions of action is a common structural term. In this play,
that coimnon structural ingredient can be said to be the speeches by the
prologues which appear at the beginning, sniddle, and end of the play. A
more detailed discussion of this and other integrative devices in the
play follows.

124

In the Stcrzing Scenario, the prologues begin both the play and
part one of the action. There are, appropriately enough, two separate
speeches delivered by two different individuals. The first spcecli is
cited in full since it was very likely delivered by the director/actor.'^^
It is significant that in that first speech no mention of the first course
of action is evident; rather, tlie director asks for the audience's
indulgence concerning the quality of the acting. The second prologue
presumably introduces the specific action which comprises the first course.
Tliat first part of the play contains all of the obligatory events associated
with the Neidhart legcnd--events which are presented in a system of parallel
organizational units. For instance, Neidluirt addresses the knights, they
caucus, and Neidhart finds the violet. Immediately following this the
peasants caucus, Hlschenprecht addresses the peasants, and then he,
Blschenprecht , finds the violet. After this, the episodes alternate. For
example, Elschenpreciit and Neidhart report the finding of the violet,
after which Engelmair and tlie Duchess thank them; then the court dance,
and finally the peasants dance. The first course of the play is developed
through the use of alternate and corresponding sets of action. The second
part of the Sterzing Scenario is introduced by the second prologue, the
one who presumably introduced tlie first course of action. The events
which follow this introduction do not parallel those of the first part;
rather, they form a complementary variation or a sequel to the action of
the first part.

Kinderniann, Theater Geschlclite, I, 'J08, discussed in Cliapter Six,

125

Tliis second segment of the St er zing Scenario opens v^/ith the intro-
duction of Ncidhart's son to Engelmair who receives him as the Hlder
Neidhart was received by the Duchess in tlie first part of the play.
Lest this inversion be thought accidental, it should be noted that
immediately thereafter the wine carter incongrously addresses the
peasants as "knights and nobles," Neidhart the Elder, who is among the
peasants in disguise, foolishly challenges them by shouting "Neidhart
forever." The substitution of Neidhart for wine is announced and, finally,
the barrel wherein Neidhart was hidden is hacked to bits, presumably killing
Neidliart .

The play as a whole is unified to some extent by the final speech

of the prologue (the director) wliich follows the prosum.ed death of

Neidhart in the barrel. He calls for the players to pipe up and the last

direction reads:

So they pipe up and join with the procession which leaves in
the same way it came in.

Thus, in the Sterzing Scenario, a complete symjnetry is effected by
the different use of the prologues; the speeches of the first prologue
frame the play as a whole, while the second prologue introduces each
subordinate part. As suggested, several integrative devices are operative
witliJn those segments. In part one, sets of similar action are alter-
nately joined, while the secoiid part is integrated, both internally and
externally, by the fact that it consists of an action which complements
the first part. Although the Sterzing Scenario would luardly be called
a great play, if judged by modern standards of theme, diction, character-
ization, or the quality of action. It would be grossly unfair not to

126

note that in at least one respect (its unity and synmetry) it is finely
wi'ought .

U'hile the Greater NcidJiart also resembles the leich by virtue of its
organizational principles, it differs from the Sterzing Scenario in the
way in which its various episodes are unified. Whereas the Sterzing
Scenario was unified by the use of framing elements and complementary
action, the Greater Neidliart is unified chiefly by cognate scenes and
parallel action.

The best example of how cognate scenes and parallel structure unites

the first and second portions of the Greater Neidhart is seen in the

opening sequences of both of these two divisions. The prologue in

part one opens the play by saying:

Silence, listen, heed all.
Let this counsel please you

I am tlie servant of the most beautiful woman
Of whom I could imagine.

She has in mind.

With her maidens, to plan

That whosoever would serve her nicely

Should move quickly

And not tarry.

Should he find the violet,

He should have the gift

Of one whole year

Of courting with her maiden host

Wliere are the young handsome boys now?
Come join this host here;
Here find many red lips.

Venus is called a goddess

Who lets loose the power of love;

So do the delicate ladies

127

I'VTio let themselves be seen in dance.
IVhoever should be inclined to courtliness
IVill do this dance now.

The pipei's pipe up and the Duchess with her maidens and
ladies dance.

Immediately after the dance, Engelmair, the peasant chief, addresses
the convened peasantry.

In part two, the prologue once again opens the action with a speech

which, significantly, is quite like the opening of the first part.

Listen, 1 will enlighten you.
Englmair with his friends
Will come to Zeislmaur again.

Neidhart will be secretly carried

In a cask by the wine

As he shall make great sorrow and distress

For the peasants

As they did to him with the violet.

Englmair has a cousin

IVho gives good advice.

He is called Regenbart

And is well known in Bravant

As a thorny man.

Ke will dance with them at the place.

Fridrauna simll have her promenade

With her maidens and dance

In the village manner.

WTioever will join tlie dancers now,

Come together here.

Then the peasants dance with the serving girls.

Here, as in the first part of the play, the dance is followed by a
speech from a key peasant figure (Schottenschlicker) to the convened
peasants.

The action which follows these closely parallel introductions by
the prologues is also decidedly similar. In part one of the Greater

128

Neidhart , dances set off various repeated episodes of action. As
indicated above, the prologue was set off from the body of the play by a
dance. This is followed by a dance which serves to frame the peasants'
rejection by tlie ducal court and tlieir subsequent solitary "courting."
Tiie acceptance of the knights by the ducal court and tlie conversely
serious courtly concourse is also framed by a dance. This progression
is typical of the whole organization of tlie first part. Except for the
pivotal scene about the violet and Neidhart 's reward, eveiy episode in
part one is repeated at one time or another. Tlie Devil's sermon, which
might be thouglit to stand in isolation from the other elements in part
one is but an introduction to wliat is in essence another episode of
peasant torture. In all it would be reasonable to say that the first
part of the play consists of little more than eight dances, four rejections
of suites by the court, four caucuses, four punishments of the peasants,
two peasant bra\;ls, and two threats against Engelmair.

The action of t?ie second part of the play is a simple extension of
part one. As it was pointed out above, the opening of part two is pre-
cisely like the opening of part one. The incidents which follow this
opening represent, essentially, a minor variation on the main theme.
Engelmair is once again rejected, this time by Fridrauna's court, then
the envious GUtz, Raunz, Rotzkatter, Waggendr'Jssl , and Milchfriedl
threaten to attack him again. The outrage in tliis part is the despoliation
of the mirror rather tlian the violet, but the effect is the same; the
peasant Engelmair loses his leg and perhaps liis life. Once again, the
peasants are deceived "by Neidhart as lie extorts a hundred marks from them,
and the play ends with Neidhart once m.ore rewarded by the court.

129

The Greater Neidhart play, like the Sterzing_Scenario is hardly v.'hat
one would call a good play. Modern critics would likely find its repeti-
tiousness and its episodic development to be grave dramatic deficiencies.
Nevertheless, it can be said that, rather than being disjointed, there
is a very definite organizing principle underlying the structure of the
play. The leich, which was often divided into two parts and was higlily
repetitious, provides the key to understanding why the folk of the Late
Middle Ages deliberately created vvhat is now considered an ineptly
written dramatic form. , i

If the negative criticism published about the Neidhart plays warrants
a statement in their defense, it is possible to say that all four in some
way are less poorly wrought than their critics have stated. The m.ixture
of traditional motifs in the Lesser Neidhart is in its way no more
inclioate than the mixture of topical issues and ancient rituals in the
Old Comedy of Greece; the St. Paul is com.plete in every sense if one
imagines its supporting mimed action; the structure of tlie Sterzing
Scenario and the Greater Neidhart reflects a portion of the accepted
poetic practice of their day. As Gusinde says of the Greater Neidhart,
all have some merit if one considers the times and the youthful state of
the art.

CHAPTER SIX
The Theatrical Form of the Neidhart Plays

The purpose of this, the last portion of the theatrical analysis of
the Neidhart plays, is to expose what is known about their theatrical form.
Each of the plays will be examined in terms of the general scope of their
production, their use of scenic devices and properties, the patterns of
spatial organization which accompanied their performance and their use
of theatrical conventions. It will be shown that the festival occasion
with which the plays were associated influenced the mode of production.
Finally, consideration will be given to the extent which the Sterling
Scenario, the Lesser Neidhart, and the Greater Neidhart share the
conventions, actions, and style of the religious drama and tournaments
of the fifteenth century.

The first of the plays to be treated here, the St. Paul, is small
in scope, makes use of but three essential properties, and is spatially
organized in a simple form of successive space staging. As noted in
Chapter Five, a liighly conventional mimed dance must be posited as an
integral part of this sparse play for it to be considered coherent.

•'■For general term.inology used here in regard to types of medieval
staging, see Robert Stumpfl, "Die BUhnenmbglichkeiten im XVI Jahrhundert"
in Zeitschrift fUr deutsche Philologie, LIV (1929-1930), 42-80.

130

131

The small scope of the St. Paul play can be attributed to the nature
of the occasion of its performance. Called a spielmannsdrama (minstrel
play) by Gusinde and Kindermann, the St. Paul is thouglit to have been a
type of play performed at court before an audience of nobles. The
probable site of this performance, the hail of the castle, and the small,
two me;riber team of actors by which it may have been performed (man and • '
wife),'^ would seem to account for the restricted scope of the pi'oduction.
Fifteenth century manuscript illustrations of medieval halls show an open
area of some 10x15 feet in front of the main table wherein entertainment
could be presented or members of the court might dance after the main
meal,' while elevated galleries for musicians and other entertainers are
an architectural feature often found in the great halls of castles and testify
to their use for entertainment. Since roving actors, traveling singly
or often in connubial pairs, played before the court, it would seem
logical for them to have used the relatively small space available in
those banquet halls. The additional musicians and supernumeraries needed
to fulfill the requisites of the performance, as in the case of the mimed
dance in the St. Paul, could well have been found in the staff of the
noble household which included the court fool, kitchen scullions, etc.

Kindermann, Theater Geschichte Europas, 1, 409.

3

Ihe use of males for female roles in the Middle Ages does not appear

to have been an exclusive practice, althougli the convention was associated
with guild productions. Gusinde cites Bavarian and Austrian ordinances
of 1244 and 1256 which refer to players vdio traveled with their wives,
Neidhart mit dem Veilchen, pp. 29-30.

■^For examples of typical m.edieval halls, see John Heniy Parker,
Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1859), p. 76, and Mario
Praz, An illustrated History of Furnishing^ (New York, 1964), p. 87.

132

The use of propertjes and the organization of space in the St. Paul
are of the simplest sort. Only three properties are needed to perform this
play: Neidhart's hat, the violet, and a sword with vjliich to hack off the
peasants' legs. One can presume that the court would have frowned on a
realistic depiction of the desecration scene, hence that malodorous
item could have been excluded from the prop list. Insofar as the matter
of place is concerned, there are but three locales suggested by the
script: the meeting place of the Duchess and Neidhart, the site of the
violet, and the place at which Neidhart confronts the peasants. 'Ilie stage
direction which reads, "Neidhart goes and places the flower beneath the
hat and says: . . .," \v-ould make it appear that Neidhart carried the
violet to the neutral stage space, placed it on the ground, and thus
changed the locale. Hence, a simple form of sequential space staging is
indicated.

Of the subject plays, the St. Paul is perhaps the nost convention-
alized, with its use of para-theatrical stratagem, such as mimed dance,
exceeding that of the other plays considered here. On the basis of the
assumptions of Gusinde and Kindermann,' one can construct, albeit without

While this presumption seems reasonable for a courtly audience, it
may not have been true for tlie mixed audience attending the other plays.
Explicit verbal description in tlie plays and precise detail in the wood
cuts found in Neidhart Fuchs make it reasonable to assuine the worst. It
is difficult to accept Gusinde's notion. Ibid. , p. 11, that some substi-
tute such as dried leaves was used in the St. Paul. The Duchess' threat
of death would hardly be justified by such a mild disappointment.

Stumpfl associates sequential staging with secular drama and simul-
taneous staging with religious drama without indicating why tliis may be
so, "Bllhnenmbglichkeiten im XVI Jahrhundert ," pp. 75-76.

As noted in Chapter Five, autliorities have reached moderate agreement
on the completeness of the St. Paul. See Neidhart rriit dem Veilchen, p. 31,
and Kindermann, I, 405. ~~ ~

133

any claim to liistoric accuracy, a description of the production and its

mise en scene .

The minstrel and his vv'ife, each dressed in cast off
courtly clothes, after instructing a member of tlie kitchen
staff in his silent role of the miscreant peasant and some
serving girls in their roles as aides to the Duchess, present
themselves in the great hall of a baron's castle. The meal
has just finished, the time for entertainment is nigh. The
male minstrel, wearing a mask, announces the nature of the
play (the Prologue's speech). lie retires and removes his mask
as the Duchess steps forward and d'^livers her lines of greet-
ing. He returns and pledges he'll find the violet. He goes to
another place, removes the violet from his bosom, places it on
the floor and covers it v.-ith his hat, then goes to find tlie
Duchess. The kitchen boy in the meanwhile has crept out from
under a table. He quickly snatches up the violet, drops his
breeches, and recovers the spot with the hat. He then returns
to his hiding place. Neidhart returns with his m.ay -bride and
lier attendants. The ladies dance about the violet. Finally,
Neidh rt lifts the hat for the Duchess. She denounces him and
then exits. Neidhart, searching about for the miscreant, de-
livers his threat. Ifnen he discovers the boy under the table,
he chases him in a comic ballet about the hall. 'Vhen the
peasant is finally captured, Neidliart mimes hacking off his
leg. Then as the baron and his highly amused retainers applaud,
the Duchess curtsies and Neidhart bows.

The combination of simplicity and conventionality which is so

apparent in the St. Paul differentiates it from the later drama of

medieval Germany. It should not be assumed, however, that the St. Paul

is the beginning of the middle class secular drama which flourished in

the fifteenth century, even though it is the earliest of the extant

secular plays. It is, rather, a vestige of the mannered courtly

tradition which was at that mom.ent dying. ^

q

Walshe, Medieval German Literature, p. 2S5,

134

Tlie Lesser Ncidl^art represents a coiisiderably longer theatrical
treatment of the Neidhart story than docs the St. Paul, one whicli requires
at least fifteen speaking roles. The play is introduced by a prologue, ^/
after wliich it continues for one hundred and ninety-eight verses, in
contrast to the fifty-eight of the St. Paul. In addition to the main
characters found in the Neidliart legend, the Lesser Neidhart has the
Devil and tlie Doctor who make their appearance after Neidhart 's assault v--"'^
on the peasants. Finally, this play also explicitly includes the scene
of Neidliart's reward and forgiveness.

I'he properties called for in tlie Lesser Neidhart are no different

in kind than those called for in the St. Paul, although their number is

increased by virtue of the fact that Engelmair has stilts and the Doctor ^^

must carry vials. In spite of tlie greatly increased scope of the play,

its property demands are similar to those of the St. Paul, the reason for

this similarity quite possibly being the peripctetic nature of the

production of both of tlie plays. Hie St. Paul minstrel of necessity "^

traveled liglit. Tlie performers of fifteenth century Shrovetide plays,

such as the Lesser Neidhart, were equally restricted in terms of the

amount of scenery they could carry since they had no public p]a.yliouse in

which to perform until the sixteenth century. In the fifteenth century,

to which production of the Lesser Neidhart dates, the typical location

for such a performance was:

. . . a part of the main room of a landlord or of a private \
citizen served as the "stage" to be played upon. Nearby was
a wall for a neutral background. The door iii it functioning as
the scenic possibility. In court scenes (a frequent motif) a
table would be used.^ ,

9

Kmdermann, Th.eater Gcschichtc Eur op as , I, 4, 31,

135

Since, at the time of the Lesser Neidhart, it was common for
roving bands of apprentices to go from house to house and tavern to
tavern giving their plays and receiving their que t e , inuch as the
English villagers did when they performed their Christmas plays. This
condition would scarcely lend itself to scenic elaboration.

The spatial organization in the Lesser Neidhart was of the sequential-
space variety. Like the St. Paul , the Lesser Neidhart has three locales
clearly indicated, althoug'n there may luivc been as many as five or six.
The play opens at the site of the court and proceeds to the site of the
violet. Neidhart accomplishes this scene change by secretly placing
the violet under his hat while announcing he has found it. His exit
presumably establishes a complete change of locale since the peasants are
discovered admiring the violet immediately thereafter. In a certain sense,
this is an analogue to the "cross fading" process found in modern theatre
and film practice inasmuch as the transitions would tend to make the
boundaries of individual scenes less distinct. With respect to other
scenes in the production, it is uncertain whether the fight scene takes
place in a locale other than the site of the violet, and it also is not
clear whether a scene changes accompanies the speeches of the Doctor and
the Devil. The location of the final scene is much more explicit,
however, as a knight says that the Duchess will reward the victors with
food and drink, which suggests a returii to the site of the court.

^•^Ibid. , I, 424.

136

Other than the convention by which the locale is changed, there is
little about the Lesser Neidhart which is not simple, realistic, and
straight-forward--like its bourgeois audience. The graphic manner in
which the courtly maidens exhume the desecrated violet suggests that
even an act as indelicate as public defecation, or a pantomimic version
of it, may have been expected, even demanded, by the no-nonsense medieval
viewers. Insofar as the simplicity of the Lesser Neidhart is concerned,
the dance which seems to be called for when Engelmair says, "Start the
dance, my dear player,/ I will dance the best 1 can, I and my clod
companions" (225, 192, 16), would almost certainly have been restricted
in size because of the lack of playing space. Indeed, there is every
reason to believe it was a t an z ■*-■*■ rather than a reigen. Tlie play's
simple, straightforward qualities would seem to be in complete harmony
with the medieval demand for the concrete in art, which Kindermann calls
the Nominal! St is che Darstellungsform, and which sets the period's artistic
endeavor apart from the earlier, more imaginative and etherial art forms. ■'■•^

The Greater Neidhart, which was played out of doors, is the largest
extant medieval secular drama. The size of its cast and the complexity
of its production rivals any fifteenth century religious drama. It
contains 2,268 verses, one hundred named characters, sixty-eight speaking

•^•'•In a strict sense, tanz meant a non-choral dance involving couples.
See Sachs, History of Dance, pp. 270-271.

■'■^The reigen is pictured most often as a kind of snake dance rather
than circle. Some of the plays in the Keller edition call for a reigen.
Since plays in that edition were known to have been performed indoors, we
must assume t'nat these were performed in a guild hall or else that the
bourgeois had a less expensive version of the dance.

13

Kindermann, Theater Gcschichte Europas, I, 273.

137

roles, and an equal number of supernumeraries. One can contrast this
with the Redentin Easter Play of 1464 which often h.as been called the
classic or best Easter play in tlie German vernacular. The Greater
Neidhart ' s elaborateness is most apparent when one recalls that the
"classic" Redentin Easter Play has but fifty-four speaking roles and
2023 verses. Vfliile, in terms of scope, the Redentin play cannot be
considered the culmination of the religious plays (the sixteentli century
saw extravaganzas lasting for as many as forty days) , ^ it is representa-
tive of the stage of development of religious drama in Germany in the
mid-fifteenth century. That being the case, it is obvious that the
Greater Neidhart compares favorably in size with the most elaborate of
its religious counterparts.

The number of scenic devices, costumes, and properties in the
Greater Neidhart increased in proportion to the increase in scope or
elaboration of the play. For example, the knights are mounted on horse-
back when the occasion calls for it and some device, perhaps a wagon, is ,
used for bearing the kegs of wine which are needed in the playing area at
the time of the peasant's festival. The play also had a Hell Mouth, from
which the devils ran, and it is entirely probable that the monastery in
which the monks were incarcerated was constructed before the audience
since, at one point, Neidhart asks the Duke to "Help me build a monastery"
(197, 435, 25). Since the Greater Neidhart was presented out of doors,
and since it would only be logical for it to be given at some traditional

^•"^Ibid., p. 8.

A. E. Zucker, The Redentin Easter Play in Record of Civilization:
Sources and Studies, XXXII "(New York, 1941 ]~P- IX"^ '

l^At Bourges (1536), see Oscar G. Brockett, History of the Theatre
(Boston, 1968), p. 97.

138

festival site, it is very likely tliat a may-pole was a permanent scenic
device found in the playing area, particularly since the peasants had
to be "hung" from something^^ (191, 428, 20). If not that, there is a
moment in the play in which the peasants strike a post with their swords
to show Neidhart what they would do if they caught him (219, 462, 1).
In addition to the above items, the play calls for numerous musical
instruments such as drums and pipes and lyres. In all, the scenic
devices and properties used in the Greater Neidhart are as numerous and
large as tliose associated with the religious extravaganzas of the age.

The costuming of the Greater Neidhart required special consideration, j
The actor playing Neidhart has no less than four changes to make during
the course of the play. He arrives presumably in courtly attire, changes
to armor, disguises himself as a sword sharpener, then dons a monk's
liabit, and finally puts on court attire. Moreover, it is safe to assum.e
that the court dress used in the second half of the play was not the
same as that used in the beginning since Neidhart appears before the
peasants in disguise. The twenty-nine peasants with speaking roles also

put on and remove monks' habits during the course of the play. The court

1 8
itself was of necessity dressed richly and it is only logical that the

devils' costumes would have had to have been as elaborate as those of

1 Q
other contemporary productions (religious). UTien one considers that

"^''e. K, Chambers, The Medieval Stage (Oxford, 1903), p. 169, notes
the hanging of hides on trees as an early form of sacrifice. Tlie contem-
porary painter, Pieter Breughel the Elder, in his "The Triumph of Death,"
shows may-poles of the continental variety being used as instruments of
torture, namely, as a means by which victims could be punished through
exposure.

1 8

See Barton, Historic Costume, pp. lS5-i79.

•^^Samuel L. Sumberg, The Nuremberg Schembart Carnival (New York, 1941;,
p. 109. Contemporary expense accounts show that the demons' costumes
were detailed and often "practical."

1.39

250 costumes may luive been used to clothe the two-hundred-odd actors in ^^
this production, and tliat a satin dress, which could have been necessary
for members of the Duke's court, mighit cost as much as a cow, one
realizes that, relatively speaking, the human effort and financial
investment devoted to theatrical art in this era equals anything done ,
today.

The process of deducing the spatial organization which prevailed
in performances of the Greater Neidhart presents unusual problems inasmuch
as the text does not contain descriptions of this aspect of the production.
In addition, the stage directions which are provided suggest a number of
staging possibilities, none of which readily falls into accepted
categories. Heinz Kindermann asserts that the play was produced on a
simultaneous stage," as were the religious dramas of this time. Before
accepting this possibility, however, it should be remembered that religious

plays were popular, polyscenic works addressed to audiences "both poor

22
and rich," whereas, the Greater Neidhart was played before an audience

called:

Lords, knights, and noble heirs.
Also shopkeepers who can handsom.ely
Affect high fashion ...

(162, 393, 6)

Orientation of a drama toward a single class or individual would seem

to favor a monoscenic spatial organization such as that which reached its

20

Ibid. , p. 66. Sumberg cites Boehm, Die Mode: Menshen und Moden im

XVI Jahriiundert (Munich, 1923), p. 110, who places'T'he value of a coT'T'at

this time at four florins and the price of a satin costume at four and

one-half florins.

" Kindermann, Theater Geschiclite Europas, I, 407.

'^'^Zucker, The Redentin Easter Play, p. 40.

140

apogee in the coui't theatres of the Renaissance. That system of presenta-
tion, with its successive scenic units and locales, v;ould sccin far more
appropriate than simultaneous staging in which "the best seat" inevitably
(and democratically) shifts as the action shifts from one static locale
to anotlier. Consequently, if the Prologue's address can be taken as
truly indicative of tlie social orientation of the production, simultaneous
staging would have been precluded as a staging possibility. It cannot be
said, however, that the Greater Neidhart neatly falls into the category
of a successively staged play. Althougli the Hell Mouth and the monastary
could have been moved into the neutral stage space on wagons or sleages,
and the pea;ants could have liad a place to retire outside the playing
area, no mention is ever made of the members of the court retreating to
a stand or ort . Moreover, no mention is ever made of an entrance of these
individuals. Thus, it seems that there was at least one fixed locale in
the playing area, that of the court. This combination of fixed and
movable scenes in the Greater Neidhart suggests tliat its spatial organiza-
tion united both successive and simultaneous principles.

A purely conjectural explanation of this mutation in spatial organiza-
tion is possible if one assumes that the real court official (prince or
duke) before which tlie play was perfonaed was the one who enacted the
part of the play's fictive Duke of Austria. The basis for that assumption,

^Sum.berg, The Nuremberg Schen'.bart Carnival, shows pageants so carried;
pp. 222-228. ' —

'^■"'^Tliey leave the p_lan, or place of action for their s t and , a locus
of stasis.

141

of coui'se, lies in the fact that there is a record of the nobility having
participated in maskings and other para-theatrical events.-- If the above
situation did occur^ the spatial organization of the Greater Neidhart could
be termed purely successive, witli tlie place of action coming to the Duke
rather than he to it. In that case, motion toward the court would transcend
tlie play space and be coterminous with the real environment. The
"simultaneity" which is suggested by this conjecture would occur, on an
onto logical rather than a physical plane.

The final production aspect in the Greater Neidhart to be considered
is the use of convention. This includes the dance, the devils' caucus,
the hangings and inaimings , and the arbitrary diminuation of time, space,
and numbers. Though the reader of the Greater Neid;\art cannot help but
take note of this conventionality, on the whole, the central tendency in
it and other fifteenth century plays was toward realism.

The dances included in the Greater Neidhart have been shown to have
dramatic significance (see Chapter Five), In addition to this function,
they unquestionably served as vehicles of beauty and humor. The courtly
dances were exercises in grace and dignity, with sor^ae being pantomimic
and others very formal. The pantomimic variety included tlie gall lord,
courante, and bouffons . In the courante a scone of " . . . wooing and
coyness is performed after the promenade by couples. In the bouffons ,
procession and battle play alternate." ■-" fiither the couraiit or bouffons
might have been danced by the play's courtly host. The peasants, on the

75

■ See Glynne Wickham, Early English Stages, I (New York, 1959), 220.

2^Sachs, The VJorld History of Dance, p. 279.

142

other Iiand, most often did the rcigen, the great round, or gimpelgampel
(a skip dance), or perhaps tlie |}opp_ald_ei_, a dance in \v'liich tlie peasants
rushed around like wild bears, their arms and heads sluiking. '^'^ Obviously
tlic peasants who were unfortunate cnougli to be cauglit by Neidhart v;ould
have had to dance a grotesque stilt dance which involved leaping and
wheeling about in a fashion which could only have been amusing to the ./
medieval audience.

The medieval love of the grotesque, e.g. mutilated peasants, cannot
be stressed too much. Although it has been shown that there was symbolic
value in the maiming of the peasants, the entertainment value of watching
them hopping about like one-legged chickens should not be underestimated.

For example, in the The Waning of the Middle Ages, Huizinga gives ample

•70
evidence of the medieval love of violence and the grotesque," with two

instances bearing a direct resemblance to the peasants who viewed the

Greater Neidhart .

The chronicler Pierre de Fenin, having described the death of
a gang of brigands, winds up naively: "and people laughed a
good deal, because they A\rerc all poor men." In 1425, an "es-
batement" takes place in Paris, of four blind beggars, armed
with sticks, with wliich they hit each other in trying to kill
a pig, which is a prize of the combat. On tl:e evening before
they are led through the town, "all armed, with a great banner
in front, on which was pictured a pig, and preceded by a man
beating a drum.""

This was also a period in which criminals could be purchased by

towns needing amusement from other towns having an abundance of

miscreants. For instance,

2 ''ibid. , p, 280.

28

Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages [Garden City, New

York, 1954) , pp. 11-31.
29 Ibid. , p. 26.

143

The citizens of Mons bought a brigand, at far too high a price,
for the pleasure of seeing him quartered "at which the people
rejoiced more than if a new holy body had risen from the dead."'

An execution could be sweetly sentimental or the occasion of much

laughter. If tlie victim preached a good sermon of repentence, he might

soften the hearts of the spectators so that all would burst into tears

31

and his death be commeiidcd "as the finest that '.vas ever seen."

The foregoing examples fif the medieval love of what would now be
considered barbarous and cruel provides an insight into why a scene of
execution by hanging was included in the Greater Neidhart (191, 42S, 20).
Specifically, a peasant, Humel, and his companion are seized and hung
by Neidhart. Since neither is given an opportunity to speak before he
dies, one can suppose no sympathy for them was intended by the play's
author.

Anotlier conventional scene in the Greater Neidhart is the devils'

caucus. This scene, which ends with yet another harrassment of the

peasants, is an absolute parallel to scenes in tlie religious drama of

the time. For example, the correspondences between the speeches given

to the character Lucifer in the Greater Neidliart and those given Lucifer

in the Redentin Easter Play are quite evident. In the Redentin play,

Lucifer, sitting on a dolium (a large barrel), says to his followers:

You shall now fly quickly hence
Mid strive to fulfill my orders.

You shall give them the worst possible advice,
Nor shall you despise.

^Qlbid., p. 11.
•^^Ibid. , p. 24.

144

Whether they run, ride, or walk.

The halt and also tlie blind--

You sliall liiud them all together

So that they'll never live in that kingdom

From v.'iiich we have been driven out.-^^

In the Great e r Ne i dh a rt , Lucifer makes a similar charge to his

underlings :

I bid you,

And promise you thereby.

By my love for you.

Go among them and mingle!

Their souls will all be mine.

Now be ready!

IVho brings liis love

And can give it full

Shall have the tenth soul.

(202, 442, 9)

Lasterpalch, a devil in the Greater Neidhart, replies to Lucifer's

charge in a way that would seem to be more appropriate in the Redentin

play than in the Greater Neidhart.

Yes, Lucifer, it will be done,

I will go to them now.

I will give them such advice

That tliey will care

Little for body or life.

I will also teach

lliem arrogance and exuberance,

Greediness and foreign custom,

Play, seduction, and drunkeness

And false oaths,

(203, 443, 7)

The possibilities for interpolation of the devils' speeches between

the two plays are virtually inexhaustable . 'Alien the devilish host in the

Redentin Easter Play returns with souls, they are rewarded in much the

same way as tlie loyalty of Lasterpalch is rewarded in the Greater Neidhart.

^^Zucker, The Redentin Easter Play, p. 82.

145

For example, Lasterpalch is told, "Swiftly I will crown you./ Sit twixt
me,/ I will reward you" (204j 443, 35), while in the Redentin play,
Lucifer says to Astrot, "Surely you are a faitliful miin;/ You shall have
a big stench. "^-^

The comic effect achieved by the introduction of Lucifer and his
horrid companions into both religious and secular plays is obviously
different than the mirth caused by tlie plight of the ludicrous peasants.
In the Greater Neidhart, the peasants were not presented as a serious
threat to anyone except themselves, but in both plays, the devils
represented personages who were considered to be a present and fearful danger
to populaces of tlie Late Middle Ages. After all, each spectator had
heard the clergy issue the injunction momento mori , along with vivid des-
criptions of Hell and its chief tormentor, Lucifer. As a result of this
inculcated fear of demons, tli.e laughter caused by the sight of the devils
was quite probably an uneasy expression of the desire for liberation
from Satan's clutches. While the medieval folk, lords, burgers, arti-
sans, and clergy laughed at the plight of the wretched peasants in the
Greater Neidhart, they were not unaware of the fact that death danced
with all, and that God's terrible judgement respected no claim of earthly
glory. Consequently, the effect achieved by the inclusion of the
devils' caucus in the Greater Neidhart, in many ways, would have been
similar to the "black humor" of the modern theatre--mirth born of
bitterness and fear.

^"Ibid. , p. 93.

^'Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, p. 13.

Allardyce Nicoll, The Theory of Drama (New York, 1966), p. 196.

146

'I'he final convention opci'ative in the Greater Keidliart consists of

t]ie use of diiiiinuative replicate constructs involving temporal^ numerical,

and spatial elements. To illustrate, Neidhart tricks the peasants into

drinking his "Good Father Bernhart" wine (194, 432, 10) and they have all

fallen asleep, he says:

1 will change all you gathered hero.
1 will sliear each of your pates,
I will shear you down to tlie ears
So all of you will be fools.
Now lie here, you evil apes;
You must sleep three days
Then I will return here
And have some more fun with you.
(195, 433, 5)

Tlie three days go by in as many minutes. Three minutes stand for
three days and ten or twelve peasants have their legs cut off in place
of the thirty-two called for in tlie script The "full tlurty-two" is
traditional since an episode in the Neidliart apocrypha notes two dead
and thirty wounded, and tlie fourteenth century manuscript states: "Of
them there were thirty-two who had lost their left leg." The Devil and
the Fifth Knight in the Greater Neidhart affirm this quota (187, 424, 9;
202, 441, 29), but apparently those responsible for the production felt
free to diminish the number by ordering ten or twelve of the fleeing
peasants to be captured by the knights (134, 419, Si") ,

The same tendency to substitute a smaller unit for a larger can be
found in the use of the pageant. The V'.'agons or sledges, which it is
reasonable to assume transported the inouas tery and Holl Mouth in the
Greater Neidhart, quite likely had small but detailed replicas of the

147

actual, or in the case of Ilell, imagiiiod locales mounted on them. By
small, one ought to understand that tliese replicas wore considerably
smaller than an actual m.onastery or the "mind's eye" view of Hell which
a devout peasant might possess. As scenic devices go, however, they may
well have been quite large, particularly if they appi'oached the dimen-
sions of the pageants used in other tlieatrical ventures of the period.
For example, at tlie time of the Greater Neidhart , the pageants of the
Schembartlauf , or Shrovetide mummings , had a wide range of motifs.
Some are pictured as dragons, castles, and sliips; other show pastoral
scenes, a windmill, and even a monastery. All are very detailed and
apparently functional since they sliow action within and without. The
bulk of the pageants seem to be about twenty feet long, half as wide,

and in the case of the larger castles and ships, as high as twenty

37
feet. While the Schembart collection does not picture Hell Mouths such

as the one called for in the Greater Neidhart, contemporary paintings

and manuscript illuminations do show the traditional Hell Mouth to have

an opening vvhich would accomodate a man standing, and a width equal to

its height, if not greater. In fact, in one instance, the head of Hell

mouth terminates in a wooden three-sided shelter, in another, the mouth

joins a castle or jail.^^ It is likely that the movable scenic devices

^"Sumberg, The Nuremberg Schembart Carnival, pp. 222-228.
'^'^Ibid. , p. 139.

•ZQ

^"See illustrations in Hans Borcherdt , Das EuropUische ITieater
(Leipzig, 1935), pp. 24-26.

39

Ibid,

"^"ibid., p. 27.

148

in the Greater Neidhart conformed to the typical size and configuration
of those described above. Thus, in the case of scenic structures or
motifs, as well as in matters involving time and number, the established
principle appears to have been either, that a part can stand for a whole
or a smaller replica can stand for a larger actual or imagined object
(the monestary and Hell Mouth).

Taken as a whole, the Greater Neidhart is a rather remarkable
theatrical achievement. The quantity of properties and costumes testify
to the cost of the production, while the size of its cast and the scope
of its action suggest a monumental human effort. Equally significant
is the fact it made extensive and critical use of traditional religious
scenes, para-theatrical dance, and imaginative if arbitrary diminuation
of space and time.

The last dramatic work considered here, the Sterzing Scenario, exposes
more information about fifteenth century secular stage production than do
any of the other extant plays of that time.^-'- In scope, it is smaller
than the Greater Neidhart, but considerably longer than the fastnachtspiele
of the time. It unquestionably made use of movable scenic devices and
properties, albeit it did not employ large pageants. The spatial organiza-
tion of these productions is not only, at times, both successive and
simultaneous, but it is also reminiscent of the medieval religious arena
staging. Finally, its conventions are in part borrowed from the tournament.

The scope of tlie Sterzing Scenario makes it likely that the play was

41a contemporary religious play. The Donaueschingen Passion Play,
has explicit directions for gestures. See Blakemore Evans, "The Staging
of the Donaueschingen Passion Play" in Modern Language Review, XV
(1920), 270-297. ~

149

staged out of doors, as v;as the Greater Neidhart . I'i: contains over forty
speaking roles and probably as many as twenty 3upernu:;meraries . A verse
count is, of course, impossible since the complete speeches are lacking
in the scenario. Sirice over one Iiundred speeches of tlic play are
recorded, it is possible to assume that it possessed at least one thousand
or more verses, roughly half as many as the Greater Keidhart .

Tlie play's property list includes the swords, violet , and stilts
found in all of the plays, and in addition, there are references to chairs,
benches, casks, a letter, medicine bottles, salves, a m.anure cart, baiidages,
a wine cart, and garlands. There seems to have been l")Ut one costume ,
change in the play, however, that being Neidhart' 3 use of a peasant
disguise. In the latter respect, the demands of the Sterzing Scenario
fall far short of those of the Greater Neidhart.

The spatial organization in the production of the Sterzing Scenario
resembled tliat of the Greater Neidiiart in that, at so.ime moments, the
playing space was used for the simultaneous presentation of scenes, while
at other times, it was used successively. For example, at one point in
the play, the center of the acting area sim.ultaneously contains the
violet scene and the site of the peasant caucus. {231 ^ 239). Another
example of simultaneous staging is found a.t the opening of the play when
the Duchess, who is in her "place," addresses the kn-sgi'its, in tlieir
"place" (231, 237). Finally, at the end of the first part of the play,
three settings in active or simultaneous use C246, 2S5). As suggested
earlier successively staged scenes are also in evidence too in the play.

150

For example, after a caucus, the peasants return to their place and
the scene tlien shifts back to the site of the violet. V/lien the violet
scene ends, however, the scene shifts back to the peasants (23.3j259 J-
In this instance, as well as in the Greater Ncidhart, no restriction
to either simultaneous or successive staging is observed.

Tlic ground plan of the theatre where these scenes were played seems

to have resembled that of a tournament. It has a plan (234, 242) or )

1
place of action which was surrounded by schranken, or barriers. The I

Ducliess sat on some type of elevated platform, while the knights sat on \

one side some distance away. The area occupied by tlie knights was quite [

possibly also elevated since there is a reference to tlie fact tliat the /

"peasants sit opposite and belovsr." One assumes that the cast waited v

outside the barriers for, at one point, I'.ngelmair leads his group from

their original place' into the barriers (233, 239 j. In this connection,

there is a difficulty in presuming that a single ring of bax'riers is ]

all that shielded the plan. The directions make it clear that the crowd

was gathered about the playing area in sufficient density to warrant

having someone make way for the casts' entrance (231, 236). It would

seem logical that, in view of the size of tlie crowds, the areas in which

the actors stood when not performing would liave had to be in some way

insulated against the press of the audience. If the place where the

Sterling Scenario was produced were in fact a tilting yard, this difficulty

could have been resolved by liaving two sets of barriers about the p 1 an ,

a feature which contemporary drawings indicate was possible. Tliis double

151

row of barricades had entries on the cast and west sides. The audiences
were seated nortli and south of the lists.

If the Sterzing Scenario were presented in an actual tournament-
theatre, one could reconstruct with some hope of accuracy the distribu-
tion of the scenes in the acting area. If the fictive Duchess sat with
her m.aidens on a dais, she probably would have been facing the real nobility
in the audience who were invariably looking north, away from the sun.'^-^
The knights in the play might have been seated to the east, on the fictive
Duchess' right hand. The peasants would then be stationed at the west end
of the barricades. On the basis of the assumptions made above, the
configuration and disposition of the scenes in the course of the play
could have been as follows. The audience stood or sat around the outer
perimeter of the barriers. Between the two enclosures were three static
locales: the places of the Duchess, the knights, and the peasants. The
playing space which could be used successively would have been in the
enclosed central area.

It is interesting to note in passing that the two concentric
playing areas, which would have been created if the tournament arrange-
ment was used in the production, bears a striking similarity to the
medieval arena theatres associated with religious drama. The medieval
religious round had the same two playing areas as did the Sterzing Scenario,
but the scaffolding in the religious round, when it was used, was in the
inner area rather than the outer. In these religious dramas the arena's
inner area contained the static place, the castle, and the outer area

■^^wickham. Early English Stages, p. 37. See also plates 10, li, 12,
in Appendix and pen drawing, p. 33.

4'hbid.

152

was cither an additional place of action or perhaps, the auditorium. '^^
Tliis tricentric religious stage is a mirror image of the secular tourna-
ment yard to which the Stcrzing Scenario owed no small debt. Thus, the
Sterzlng Scenario, like the Greater Ncidhart displays an elcctic quality
by virtue of its combination of elements of the religious and courtly
tradition within th.c secular and common entertainment form.

Eclecticism is also the hallmark of tlie conventions associated with
this play. There are no fewer than seven correspondences between the
typical course of a tournament and the action called for in the Sterzing
Scenario. Tliese correspondences can be divided roughly into three phases-
the preliminaries, the battle and the aftermath. '^^

The preliminaries of both the play and the tournament comprise four
cognate activities. In the beginning of the tournamenr the company makes
a turn about the figliting area led by pipes, drums and jongollers. 'After
an allegorical pretext for battl-e was offered,'''^ tliere were vaunts and a
challenge to combat. The Sterzing Scenario begins precisely in this
fashion. The pipers lead the cast about the arena once prior to any
action (231, 236). 'I'he drama's equivalent to the allegorical pretext
for com.bat was, of course, the legendary desecration of the violet.
Before the battle was fought, the marshal 1 or master-at-arms saw to the

44

See Richard Southern, The Medieval Theater In the Round [London,

1957), pp. 123-142. Most recently a Ttudy corrective of^SoTitTTern has

appeared. See Merle Fifield, "Ihe Arena Tlieatres in Vienna Codices" in

Comparative Drama, II (U'inter, 196S-1969), 259-230.

'^-'For a detailed description, see Wickluun, Barly English Stages,
p. 23. A more fanciful rendering of tlie course of tlie tourney is found
in Davis, Life on a Medieval Barony, pp. 208-223.

IVickham, Early English Stages, p, 25.

153

preparedness of the field, and that completed, the vaunts were given. J

Tlie similarity of the tournament vaunts and those of the Sterzing

Scenario is attested to by the examples below. A typical vaunt in a

tournament ran:

Here is the good cavalier and Baron, Ferri of

St. Potentin. A brave knight of a valorous liouse.

He will teach a lesson to his enemies.'^'

Here is the good cavalier Raoul, eldest son of the
most puissant Count of Maurevay. Watch his deeds,
all you who love brave actions.

The preceding tournament vaunts can be compared to the Fifth Knight's
speech which reads: "I am a knight most joyous. /One can hardly find my
like/ With blows . . . etc." (240, 247). A similar parallel is apparent
when the Eighth Feasant says: "I am Mayr of Lynden/ And I can spin the
yarn./ 1, your nobility . . . etc." (240> 247). The parallel between the
two activities is further established by the fact the challenge to com.bat
received a great deal of attention in the Sterzing Scenario. Specifically,
Zypprian, the messenger, is dispatched with a small cask in which there
\/as a written notice of challenge (241, 249). Since the peasants could
not read, they had to be told the nature of its contents (a factor
which would add emphasis to the challenge), at which point they responded
vigorously.

The second portion of the cognate action in tlie tournament and Sterzing ]^^
Scenario is the battle proper. Although the single combat or joust is
the aspect of the tournament best known to modern readers, the grand finale
and high point of the festival v;as the me 1 lee. Two groups of mm would

Davis, Life on a Medieval Barony, p. 215.

48

Ibid.

154

rally around their respective banners at either end of the barricades.
At a signal, they would assault one another until the battle was won
for one side or another. In very similar fashion, the stage directions
of the Sterzing Scenario call for the two warring parties to stand
"armed and opposing one another (242, 251)." The next stage direction
reads, "Then the drummer sounds the call to battle," the knights and
peasants fight one another until Eberzant, a peasant, cries, "Good Sir,
leave off./ You have won the victory/ Thus you have . . . etc." The
directions then indicate that "Neidhart with his company should go from
the peasants to some other place." (443, 251-252). In all, the battle
in the Sterzing Scenario proceeds quite like the mellee of a tournament.

Before proceeding, it must be pointed out that the idea of knights
fighting with commoners on the field of honor, as they do in the Sterzing
Scenario, was completely against custom. The source for this scene may
have come from Wittenweiler ' s Ring, written in 1400. In this narrative,
the legendary Neidhart stops briefly at a village and bests all the
peasants in their version of a courtly tournament.

The final phase of tournament action to have a counterpart in the
Sterzing Scenario is the feast at which the combatants were rewarded. At
the tournaments, the ladies, in whose honor the combatants fought, gave gifts
to their knights. ^^ y\^j^ exact analogue of that practice is found in the
Sterzing Scenario when the peasants hold a festival after the battle.

'^^Meinrich Wittenweiler, Per Ring, ed. Edmund Wiessner (Leipzig, 1931).
•''Owickham, Early English Stages, p. 30.

155'

During the scene, Clara, Engelmair ' s wife, buys two gai'lands and presents
one to Engelmair and the other to tlie "hero" Ellsclienpreclit , after which
they all commence to celebrate by dancing a great round.

The conventions found in the first course of the Sterzing Scenario
vv'ould appear to have been borrowed from the practices and conventions
of the tournament. Thus, the issue and motifs of the Neidhard legend,
which had sprung from festivals of the High Middle Ages, finally were
merged with another fifteenth century festival occasion, the tournament.

In conclusion, the theatrical form of the four plays treated here
appears to have been influenced by the festival occasions from which they
sprang and with which they were associated in the [.ate Middle Ages. Their
differences in scope, in the use of scenic devices, in spatial organization,
and conventions reflect the differences found in the various festival
occasions which act as the seminal impulse of their generation and as the
deliminating environment of their production. The scope of each play is
shaped by, and suits, the particular circumstances surrounding it. The
scenic devices used vary as does the means for moving and displaying
them, and the spatial organization of each differs depending on the
character of the audience and the nature of the occasion. It is evident
that a clear distinction between successive and simultaneous settings
in the fifteenth century stage practice is impossible. Further, the
distinction claimed for the differential use of space and motifs between
the secular and religious drama does not hold as far as the Neidhart
plays are concerned.

CONCLUSION

Tlie purpose of tlie preceding essays was to expose the social and
theatrical significance of tlie medieval Neidliart plays. Essentially, the
conclusions reached are contained in each of the study's constituent
chapters. There are aspects of the individual chapters and of tlie work
as a wliole, however, which transcend those parocliial contexts.

The Introduction and Part One of the dissertation which were
concerned with a defense of tlie social study of dramatic literature and
the application of current anthropological and sociological analytic
approaches in an examination of the Neidhart plays, have implications
for tlie student of theatre which go beyond tlieir particular application
in this work.

Since all arc is socially conditioned and dramatic art is especially
reactive to social stimulus, t!ie social study of dramatic literature
seems to offer new avenues for research. Problems ranging from the origin
of drama to the particular characteristics of tlie heros and villains in
a given national drama may be approached from the sociological standpoint
with some guarantee of results. It could hardly be claimed tliat this
approacli is superior to the psychological and stylistic research methods
presently enjoying popularity: however, it can be stipulated that, when
a study of socially reactive art forms is undertaken from a sociological

156

157

viewpoint J equally significant results can be obtained.

Of tlie several anthropological and sociological studies cited in
Part One, two might be of use in solving problems wliich concern
contemporary tlieatre scholars. These are: Structural Analysis by
Claude Levi-Strauss and Initiation Ceremonies by Frank W. Young.
Structural analysis of dramatic literature from a sociological viewpoint
is indicated whenever there is need to examine a corpus of popular plays
which are based on more than transitory concerns. That system of analysis
vv'ould appear to be especially appropriate in case the plays lack stylistic
merit or psychological depth; the reason being, of course, that the
absence of those qualities increases the possibility tliat the plays
possess sociological significance. The realm of melodrama serves as an
example of where structural analysis might profitably be applied. For
instance, it is generally conceded that these plays are relatively 'poor
instances of the art of playwriting, yet they reflect some of the profound
social paradoxes of their era. Discovering the relationships of the motifs
in these plays would provide an understanding of their root function and,
tlius, make for a fuller appreciation of the place of melodrama in theatre
history.

The second study which bears attention is Young's Initiation Ceremonies,
It offers an idea of how and under what conditions drama evolves. The
puzzle of vs'hy certain nations and periods of history tend to make greater
use of the institution of theatre than do others may well be solved by
examining the systemic needs of those societies. In addition, one might

158
examine tlie social role-play in a given society as a means to discovering
nuances in dramatic role-play. Although individuals invent the human
circumstances in pl^iys, problems of identity, role definition and inter-
personal communication which form a good bit of the stuff of drama are
not in their aggregate purely imaginative constructs. These problems
reflect, in part, the aspirations, fears, and needs of families, classes,
and even whole cultures. Study of these social entities could provide
insights into patterns of characterization and plots in national drama.

Part Two of this work was concerned with the Neidhart plays as works
of theatrical art. The analytic modes employed in that theatrical analysis
warrant little more discussion. It might be noted in passing, however,
that in the case of plays not written according to n:odern standards, the
principles of the Chicago Scliool of critics tend to yield more information
than other critical methods.

Some aspects of the history and form of the Nei':Iliart plays have a
significance which goes beyond that noted in the body of this study. The
use of the term Osterspiel for a secular dramatic activity such as the
Ncidliart plays certainly supports the notion that during tlie Middle Ages,
a secular theatre may have existed alongside tlie religious theatre. Admittedly,
while it is possible tliat additional information will push the time of
the earliest known secular drama beyond its present date of 120S, it is
doubtful that anyone will develop compelling evidence for the primacy of
secular dr.ar.ia over the religious drama. Indeed, the eclecticism of the

d'Ancona, Alessandro, Origini del Teatro (Turin, 1891), p. 89,

159

fifteenth century religious and secular plays which came to light via

the preceding discussion of the Neidhart plays seems to indicate that

the whole question of primacy could be based on a false dichotomy.

As Pascal says.

It may well be maintained that the em.otions of the Resurrection
ceremony preserve and canalize the cycle of emotion of pagan initiation
rites . . .

Pagan ritual forms are grafted upon Christian in a period of
religious and social transformation to produce the first beginnings
of drama.

Although the bulk of the examination of the Neidhart plays necessarily
involved the period after the first union of pagan and Roman Christian
customs, evidence from both the social and theatrical analysis tends to
support this idea of the existence of dual and mutually influential
dramatic genres.

The final implication of the social and theatrical analysis of the
Neidhart plays which bears some comment regards the advisability of
treating a group of plays from two entirely different viewpoints. Since
the ultimate goal of this study was to say what hadn't already been said
about the Neidhart plays, this approach recommended itself. A judgement
about the degree of success it achieved is better left to others. In
general, analysis of plays from more than one viewpoint would seem to
work best when the scope of inquiry is restricted enough to permit
reasonable m.anagement of the subject matter. The epic concerns and
style of tlie Neidhart plays may well have gone beyond what this approach
could bear.

^''Origins of Liturgical Drama," pp. 383-384.
^Ibid. , p. 386.

APPENDIX A

The St. Paul Neidhart Play

The soui'ce of the St. Paul Neidhart Play is a rp.onachai script
found in the Codex of the Stiftsbibliotliek of St. Paul in KLlrntren ,
Austria. The Codex was staited in the fourl.eenth ct^ntury, and was bound
in the fifteenth. The edition translated here was prepared by Antun E.
Sch'Jnbach and was published as "Ein Altes Neidhartspiel" in Zeitschrift
fUr dcutsches Altertum, XL (1S96), 368-374.
' Proclainator :

368 Now listen, ladies and gentle'iien.
To this place.

Even at this time,

Coine a Duchess and Sir Neidhart

369 5 With many pretty ladies.

From tliem you shall be shown the adventure
Of how the faithful knight Sir Neidhart
So contracted with the Duchess
That whosoever found the first little flower
10 Should be beloved by the other the whole year long.

Loquatur d ucissa :

Greetings noble Neidhart.

From whence come you at this time

Or how do you feel

About this briglit bloom of May?
15 Miat sha] 1 we do now

So that we may attain a rapture.

Let lov^e's sjiirit be such

So tliat I will be joyous witli you

In this May's shining spleiulor,
20 • I and the pure maidens.

160

370

161

Respondeat Nithardus:

By your grace, dear lady of mine,

IVliat you bid shall be.

I will pledge myself

To compose love's poem
25 The best I can.

By night and day.

For the sake of all beautiful good ladies,

I shall have exhaulted spirits.

If I search with resounding joy
30 For the little flower and violet

And find that little flower

So you must be my beloved.

Vadat Nithar;dus___ej^jonat florem sub pileo et j;edeat

0 noble lady love

1 am rich with joy

35 Since 1 have found now
The violet blossom.
You should go to see it.
You and the noble maidens.

Levato pileo a ducissa:

40

Oh to arms! To arms!

You should be punished for this

So you never lie again

And never more deceive a Lady,

You cowardly weak man!

This must cost your life.

Jlg^Pgil^-^^"'^ Nithardus parcum^percussus :

45 Oh noble lady high born.
Let pass your anger at me
And let m.e have your trust!
This all happened without my guilt:
A peasant has done this to me.

50 He must leave a leg here as forfeit.

Nithardus ad rusticos:

Say you village boys.
You knaves and gi'uel fools
V/hat did you want of me
Tliat you broke the violet
55 And with your insult

Destroyed for me the fame of love?
As forfeit you must leave a leg here
And go home on stilts.

APPENDIX B

The Greater N e i d h art Play

The source of the Greater Neidhart Play is in manuscript "G,"
The Wof fenbut tier Papierhandschrift . It was edited by Adelbert von Keller
who published it as number fifty-throe in Fastnachtspielc aus dem
fllnfzchnten Jahrhundert in Bibliothek des litterarisclien Vereins , XXVIII
(Stuttgart, 1853), 392-467. 1

393 Herein begins the Neidhart play.

At fi rst the prologue speaks

Silence, listen, heed all.
5 Let this counsel please you.

Princes, counts, so be you,

Lo.rds , knights and noble heirs.

Also shopkeepers, tliose who can handsomely

Affect a high fashion
10 And therefore be well born.

Are in such an age

That they can deport themselves handsomely

With good people in courtly concourse.

Them I shall indeed grant rights
15 To mix in this host

And shall make known to them

Miy I am sent lie re.

Waat I now impart to you

Listen to most carefully.
20 I am the servant of the most beautiful woman

Of whom I could imagine.

I shall speak truly,

I know full well

That in all of Germany
25 Her like is not known.

And Cod, in all of Christendom

Never made one more beautiful.

394 By her beauty and status.
By her carriage and youth,

I know no other woman on earth ,
UTio with her wliole being
5 Could have as joyful disposition

162

20

163

As the dear delicate lady of mine.
Slie is the most beautiful woman
As the sun ever shone over,
And she is the Duchess of Austria.
10 She has in mind

With her maidens to plan
That whosoever would serve her well
Should move quickly
And not tarry.
15 Sliould he find tlie violet.
He should have t'nc gift
Of one whole year
Of courting with her maiden host
And he ivould also be the attendant
Of the delicate and handsome lady of mine.
Where are the young handsome boys now?
Come join this host here;
Here find many red lips.
Let me be your guide.
25 You should live joyfully with thera.
Also, my lord of Austria, the Duke,
Has given his assent.
He too will on this day
Join with youth in this host.
30 Come, I will lead you there.

There many red lips shall receive you
And let you dance by them.
IVliat can be better,
W^-ien two lips laugh together?
35 They also can give loving glances
And thereby strengthen your life.
395 Venus is called a goddess

M\Q lets loose the povrer of love:
So do the delicate ladies
V/lio let themselves be seen in dance.
5 Whoever should be inclined to courtliness
Will do this dance now.

The_jjj^ers_j3jj3^_up_ and the Duchess with her maidens and
ladies dance. ' ~~~ '

After the dance Englmair stands before the peasants '
place _ands peaks : " ^ "

10

First I will join the host,
Tlicn on to the pretty maidens,
Aiid I will help the servants.
So I would be known to the Duchess
And lier maidens. So I hope
That they would take me in their service.
15 m-io serves them full of joy.

To him will come the first violet.

164

lernfrid, the second peasant, also takes F.nglmair by
the hand and speaks to him: "

Good man, don't let yourself be too hasty!
20 My companions and I

Will all go there with you

With great joy and shouts.

We pay no attention to courtly custom.

One of us may also have the honor.

25 Sclinobelrausz , the third peasant, speaks:

So we shall joyfully go. '
The pipers must pipe ap.

Then the peasants dance toward the court and F: ng Imair
takes the first maiden, tugs at lier drc s s and speaks :

30 Fortune be yours!

Greeting dear maiden of mine.
I ask you to dance with me.
I will give you a garland of roses
And I will give you good ginger cookies
396 For which I have yet to pay.

A good cheese I will give you.
Let me see . . .

I want to give you soirie good buttermilk,
5 And a bolt of good raw linen.
And a penny or three,
And a good rich mush.
Also I want to buy you a red belt
And a green ribbon for your hair.

10 . And the first maiden speaks disgustedly to Englmair
and pushes him from her:

Control yourself you crude peasant.

You plowboy, you kitchen knave!

You howl in a barrel!
15 Wliat do you know of me

Or what is in your mind?

I think you are full of wine.

I will not dance with you.

You have the breeding of an ass.
20 You offer me sweet ginger bread -

Let someone else go for it!

The cheese and ricli mush

Will not be eaten by me.

Go, you peasant people, back home and
25 Drink your buttermilk alone!

165

Ackertrapp, the fourth peasant, speaks to tho other
peasants :

Come, you gentlemen, we shall go
And not stay here.
Englmair, don't be sorrowful.
30 My companions have composed
A handsome proud step
Uliich is in the courtly manner.
They dance it on their toes
So they don't go on their heels.
35 Their spurs handsomely jingle

And their courtly little song they sing
397 That makes many hearts gay.

Regenv.'art speaks and fills the rhyme:

I'
And many heads empty, I

I know that
5 And something more.

The people of the court don't know
The new step we have.
Have no fear

About our costumes and our hair.
10 In addition, with leaps and jumps.
We, with our new dance.
Have something the like of which no knight has.

Englmair speaks to Regenwart :

Thank you, sir Regenwart,
15 Let your dance be shown!

I see the women coming.

■Come, go then!

We'll no longer stand here.

These women think they are so good
20 That we, by reason of their exuberance.

Shall be pushed from the dance.

Therefore, we will dance with our comrades.

Tlien the peasants wit hd raw from the court .
Schnabelrausz speaks:

Now listen, I am called Schnabelrausz.
25 I don't give a damn for anybody

And I will go with Elsa at the dance
And earn the rose garland.
No one shall embrace her
But me, my dear Elsa.

166

30 Elsa tlic serving maid speaks :

Schnabelrausz, you spirited man.
You shall have your consumate wish.

398 I shall be ready for you

No matter who thinks it good or bad.

Ackertrgpp speaks to Adelliait :

I"in called Ackertrapp
5 And I'm also a v^;retchcd Lapp.
I want to 'nave Adelhait.
With her I will be ready.
Adelhait, if you care to be mine,
I shall be yours aloiie on earth.

1 0 Adelhait ,_ the other serving girl :

Yes, Ackertrapp,
I am a poor Lapp too.
You should not despair.
I will happily dance with you
15 And will not forsake you.
No one can interfere.

Eisengrein speaks to Geut:

I am called Eisengrein.

And should things not go,
20 According to my wishes

That would cause me pain.

And should I die from it

I want to have a sweetheart.

I want to have Geut,
25 I sliall love Iier.

Geut, the third peasant serving gir 1 :

Happily, dear Eisengrein,
I'll do it as you wish
Though I have no great worth
30 Yet I do have a spirited soul.
And I am the sa)fie, as well,
As any who is quite rich.

llebenstreit speaks to Gcdi'aut :

I am called Hebenstreit

399 And I am so wicked
And also strong.

So Wo It ir gern mit cuch wag an.

167

That I know of no one so mean
That could beat me
Be it in anger or in war.
5 I am so nasty

Tliat I would strike a cripple.
If 1 hit a cripple
He could never recover.

One should have to read the rites to him.
10 Therefore I want Gerdraut
To be my bride.

Gerdraut, the fourth peasant serving girl, speaks:

I am Gerdraut, a serving girl
And I have two breasts like pears.
15 I will share them with you.

God give us fortune and health!

Mil ch fridl speaks to Irnsgart:

I am called Milchfridl

I want to come too.
20 Now come, Irnsgart,

We will do the round now

Here with Englmair.

You sliould come with his host.

Step here, quick, to my side
25 And follow close behind!

Irnsgart, the fifth peasant serving girl speaks:

Dance the round !
I will follov\; in your tracks.
Let us see who would hinder oui' round.
30 We will avenge ourselves on him.

Saurkuble speaks to Kundl:

I am called Saurkuble
And I am so bitterly evil
That I can stand off three.
400 I am a bit better if two are dead.l
And I don't care whom it angers.
Come Kundl, full spirited
I can dance the now way.
5 If you believe it, so you'll get it.
One goes in, the other goes out.
Kundl, you shall be my dear beloved.

Ich pin ain wenig pesser, den totter zwen.

168
Kund 1 , tlic sixth maiden speaks:

Yes, Saurkiible, as you like,
10 You shall make love to me tonight.

I am Kundl, a servant,

I can twist and do a bend.

Ulien I hoar mo mother making love

I almost lose my mind.
15 I take the groaning well

From him \\/]io gives me a good loving.

If I am not completely satisfied in love

I take another twelve on the spot

Iflio make long love to me
20 In the straw and on the benches

If you can't do it, I will teach you well

How a man should love a woman;

And do it quick, I need it. i

Otherwise I must die. '

25 Schoppinswang speaks to Dicmout:

I am a villager, Schoppinswang,
And I am big and tall.
I am worthy of a maid.
I carry here my first sword
30 And I have a new belt.

Come here, Diemout, take my lumd.

Diemout, the seventh peasant serving girl, speaks':

That shall be, my dear love.
401 Now defy them all

So no one disturbs me.
You alone shall lead me.

Uol Hauskneclit speaks to MUetel:

5 I am called Uol Hausknecht.
It would be a great shame
If I were not to have a sweetheart.
I am so endeared to filletel
That I serve her night and day.
10 She also cares for me.

She is a maidservant and I am a knave.
We will go quite well together.
Therefore, dear Muetelin,
You sliould be my loving sweetheart

Ich trauet es erleiden wol, dor mir dis maine versclioppet wol,

169

15 And should pay attention to no other again.
Students and priests are not honorable.
Let not one throw you on your back.
I want alone to fell you on your rear.

Mtletel , the eightli maid servant, speaks:

20 Yes dear Uol, my handsome one.

You and I are quite alike.

House boy and serving maid

Should court one another.

I will take you up on this.
25 Priests and students I shall forsake.

Gretel, the ninth serving maid speaks to WagendrUssl:

I am called Gretel Prunzinstall t

And I see peasants there without number I

IvHio are loose and free.
30 Look you three dear companions

Uliat four handsome villagers are standing there.

I will take Wagendrllssl.

Christein, dear cousin of mine.

You shall have Rotzkatter;
35 And, Kathrien--Gensschnoble--
402 He can stir your navel.

Baj'bl, you are also free.

Come here, take Madenhaut.

Wagendrtlssl speaks to Grettlein:

5 Thank you, dear delicate treasure.
I shall ever be endeared to you.
I will buy you a shiny mirror
And a ribbon for your hair.
I will buy you good gingerbread.
10 You shall not have to pay for it yourself.

Matz, the ter.th serving maid speaks to IVisl:

I am a spirited serving m.aid indeed.
I see one with golden hair
I will start to follow
15 As I can do the best.

Thereby I will dance about
Doing it straight and crooked.

Hilkart, the eleventh serving m.aid, speaks to Enzlman;

170

Wliy should I care?
20 I want to ramble too,
And do one step
The way my old fatlier did
Two or three,
Since I am a free serving maid.

2 5 Gese, the twelfth serving maid, speaks to Hum e 1 ;

I want to be in on the start.

I see one in a red beard.

I will dance with him.

And spiritedly promenade around.

30 Randolfina, the thirteenth serving maid, speaks;

I will swing,
403 And gayly leap.

And with the boys dance the round
Here and there about the May.

Schlickenprein speaks to Randolfina:

5 Fkiuswurtz start beliind me!
IVe want to go to dance too.

Englmair speaks:

I will do the round.

Let us dance about the May:
10 Come, come.

Let us do the round again.

Runzolt, Punzolt, Gundlwein,

Gump and Epp and Peter lein.

You should all go to the round.
15 Gumpolt, Gumprecht , Englman,

Ikimel and Morcolf,

Go you unrepentant wolves,

Schlickenprein and Wegenbrant

Come you, gather together.
20 And my Lord Saurkuble,

He happily eats a well peeled turnip

IVhen he goes to the dance.

He eats them happily and completely whole.

And his brother Machenslaid
25 Is a hero without dismay.

Witzelher and Heldepold

They are beloved pretty women.

Wagendrtlssl and Schnabelrausz

Should do tlie round too.
30 Now come, all alike

We will dance handsomely.

171

The pipes begin to play and the peasants with their

serving maids begin to dance.
After the dance"~they~g"o to their place. The Duke speaks ;

Now hear, you gentlemen all alike
35 I am a praiseworthy prince.

404 Listen and note the correct account
Of why I come here.

I and my lady the Duchess,
You should know it.
5 It nears the time of May,

The time which gives us all joy.
I have my heart's desire '
To do away with winter.
Which displeased us all.
10 I and my valiant knights

And the noble duchess '

Will conduct courtly love. '

Therefore let everyone consider
How he feels about this plan.

15 Gcibein the first knight speaks:

With service and with humility

We are ready to serve you.

We will live in liappiness with you

And strive for the noble love.
20 In truth, I would say this:

If love's noble game were ours,.

And should each have

At your court a fine maiden.

We all should be exuberant.
25 May it suit your generosity

That each takes a tender sweetheart

And each maiden looks after her lover.

Noble Prince of Austria

Allow us this all alike!

30 Tlie Duke speaks :

The honor is yours.
You shall know my will.
I will grant it to you
If you all do well.

35 Gabein the first knight:

Maiden, tender and fine,

405 Heed these words of mine:
I mean you no ill.

Rather honor and status in abundance.
Do not hold it against me

172

5 If "I forget myself with you.

Rather you should be without anger

Since I can do no better.

Yet it often happens

One can indulge in good humor.
10 One must pay a penny

To get a pound

If one would be happy.

Thus I strive with good expectations

And if you reward my service
15 I will be exuberant

Until my death.

It shall be apparent to you.

You should know in truth.

Indeed should I upon your bed
20 Quite properly warm up

And embrace you with my very arms ,

I would in love's lust

Lovingly press you to my breast.

Thereafter would I make
25 Dear sweet love.

How could it be better for us?

Maiden be mine:

You should let me know again

How your spirits stand.
30 It would take you but a while

And it would soothe my yearning soul.

Suss ana, the first maiden, says:

Sir Glibein, most excellent,
I cannot do this.
35 I could scarce think of such a thing.
I know nothing of love.
You should ask my lady!
406 She can tell about it.

I will do what she bids.
Only believe what she says to you.
I hear you pleading a lusty case,
5 That should bring me to grief.
Therefore I would be free;
Consider yourself rebuffed.

The second knight, Parzifal, speaks to Sabina:

Greetings, high born maiden.
10 My lieart lias chosen you.

Die katz wirft an den pac hen op sie mit lustigan sachen mug
behangcn dar an.

173

So that no one can be dearer to me

Than you my dear maiden.

Maiden, mirror of excellence,

A crown, a flower, and a jewel
15 Of maidenly worth and good.

And in honor exalted spirits.

My greatest comfort.

My best fortune.

My happiness, a large portion
20 Of what I have in this world.

This is what you are most excellent maiden.

Best beloved maiden fine,

I give you my service

In the spirit of stewardship.
25 And had I better, in faith.

It would be yours inevitably, given to you for your own.

Noble maiden fine |i

Your loving appearance 1

Is above all other women praised,
30 As in the May is the green-touched sprout.

Nothing about you is lacking.

You are possessed of purity.

All is desirable

V/hich God bestowed on you.
35 He is indeed a fortunate man

Whom your excellence grants this fortune from your heart.

I .speak with good intent,
407 No person appeals to me more.

Your goodness to me

Captures my spirit.

Therefore, tender maiden fine,
5 Will you be mine?

Sabina, the other maiden, answers Parzifal:

Parzival, my good knight.
Be not dispirited.
Rather heed my lady.
10 All I do depends on her.

I can neither refuse nor grant

Wliat could happen between us.

If you vvant to stand by me even with this doubt

I shall grant it from my heart.

15 The third knight. Von der Rosen, speaks to Ottilia:

Greetings, maiden high born.
Choicest of all maidens.
Your beauty, your honor, your good.
Your deportment, and your spirit

174

20 Have possessed my Iieart.

So I cannot forget you.

I must always praise you.

As all my thoughts are bent tliis way.

Your good and youth
25 I liken to the seven virtues

Wiich I ascribe to you.

As I confess to you.

Manner, modesty, and humility.

Purity with loyalty protected,
30 Are completely yours.

Therefore, I shall praise you.

You are of true beauty,

A brilliant burning crown.

One finds in you stately bearing
408 And of excellence, the full bloom.

Show me your generous spirit

So honor shall never leave you maiden.

Your goodness is equal to
5 All honor certainly.

Your loyalty is as certain

As that of the handsome Paris
'■ Who was always loyal

As we have often read of him.
10 He was handsome and splendid

As you are splendid, maiden, wholly

Love, beauty, and most excellent;

Hear me, a young man.

That your kindness would be known here to me,
15 An answer from your red lips!

Therefore, dear maiden tender.

Consider my plea at this time.

0, comfort me properly,

I am in your service.

20 Ottilia, the third maiden, speaks to him:

You worthy knight Von der Rosen,
You should heed these words.
If you would serve with good intentions
Then I will let you know.
25 This short while you must bide
Since it is not time
For us to conduct love's game.
Don't give up you noble hero!

Veiol, the fourth knight, speaks to Affra:

30 Maiden with pure virtue

I love you, dearest maiden alone.

10

175

As love of women endears itself to me.
By heart and mind.
Know that I am endeared to you
35 From head to toe.

If I should ever forget this
'^09 Don't think too ill of me.

It would be the fault of my weak mind
That I understood myself no better.
God be with you, noble rose in dew.
5 You, above all women, my dearest maiden,
God be with your worthy youth.
You, above all maidens, are most excellent.
God be with you high born flower.
You, above all women are spiritedly bred!
God be with your playful beautiful eyes
Next to your little cheek so rosy.
Your eyes can so lovingly glance
That they with love's snares
Have tenderly embraced and
15 Lustily bound me.

God's greetings to your ruby red lips
Uliich are always beautiful.
They can lovingly, joyously laugh.
Joy and desire they can make.
God's greetings to your golden hair.
It is desire fulfilled.

God's greetings be to your neck as white as ermine
That God made wholly with special diligence.
It inclines graciously in greeting.
25 It is sweet love itself.

Maiden, do not pay attention
To how I have rashly loved you.
Maiden, for the sake of your noble youth
Show to me your excellence.
Maid, how would my death help you?
Deliver me from my need.
Maiden, for the sake of your high breeding.
Which is about you as a worthy flower.
Maiden, be without cunning.
35 Your person is so tender born.
Maiden consider me
For I am your servant
With my whole heart.
410 Transform my pain

Wiich I suffer without faith.
This increases your honor full.

Affra, the fifth maiden, answers Sir Veiol:

20

30

5 Veiol, knight without dismay.
It would pain my heart

176

If you should forsake my service.

I have you most beloved in my heart

You shall be my May love.
10 I am yours and you are mine.

That which is honorable to my estate,

I shall fulfill it now and forever.

He who loves me completely with honor

With him I shall be united.
15 We should live liappily now.

I will give you the garland.

Vciol thanks the maid and speaks :

Thank you noble maiden fine.
We shall be May lovers.

^^ The Duchess speaks to the Duke:

Duke, my honorable prince.

We should have a lively spirit.

The winter is passed.

We should conduct some entertainment
25 It comes on the Maytime

Wliich makes us newly happy.

The birds all are singing.

The pretty flowers are springing up.

I say to you in truth
30 The leaves and grass have all turned green.

Summer is near about us.

He who now in this time of May

Can find the violet

Should let this be known,
35 So I can test the power of May
411 And prove that the winter's cold is passed,

He who brings me the violet blossom now,

I would gladly grant him

That I with steadfast thought
5 V.'ill serve him gladly.

Steadfastly without a waver

To his heart's content.

You maidens tell me how that suits you.

Let me hear your counsel!

1 0 Neidhart speaks in joyful tones :

How could it be better for me
If I find the little flower
So you can prove it is May.
We will dance and do the round.

20

177

15 Lady, give me your blessing!

I have wholly committed myself

And my mind is so inclined

I will now at this time

Search for the violet and find it.

So among all of the children of the court

The honor would be mine.

So will the red lips

In deference bid me tlicir greeting.

My heart would be without pain.
25 I should be without all sorrow

If I can find the violet.

The Duchess speaks to Neidhart: *■'

You noble Neidhart most exuberant,
God give you fortune and health.

30 Neidhart goes and searches for the violet happily with
singing. And when he finds the violet he IpeakT:

Greetings wonderful little flower
It is good that I liave found you
Since you are the violet
412 From which joy is to come to us.
I will always say that.
Now I shall let you be picked
By the most beautiful woman ever,
5 I mean my lady, the Duchess.

I will give her the honor and joy.
You will be kissed by red lips.
To her I shall quickly go.

And he covers the violet with his hat.

10 By this sign I will find you.
If it goes the way I like,
I will bring her with all her maidens here.
But first I will start
To sing what I have learned.

15 Neidhart retiu3_sjvome_to_d2e_juclie^^^ joyous song.
He is happy. And Enzlman takes the hat off and picks
the violet: he craps on the spot where the violef

stood and covers it again
with the hat. The duchess speaks to Neidhart:

20

Neidhart, why are you happy?

If you know something good tell it!

I and these maidens fine

Should all be happy with you.

178
Noidhart speaks:

Noble lady rejoice,
25 I must tell you the truth.

I found a wonderful violet.

Immediately I took my hat

And covered it over the violet.

I did it in the hope
30 Ihat I am your servant.

And it occurred to me

That you should be there

With all your maiden host,

Both knights and squires.
35 Iflien I take you there

You should pick the violet,
413 You should have the honor yourself.

Truly lady, know this.

This enhances you and no one better. I

The Duchess speaks t o Ncidliart:

5 Thank you, you worthy Neidhart,
We will go there at this time.
With drums and lyres
We shall make diversions.
With pipes and schalms
10 We shall dance about it.

We' will on that joyous spot

Receive dear summer.

IVhat I say I certainly mean.

Send for the players and do the dance!

15 Neidhart speaks:

Lady, I will do this gladly.

Since you will help me.

You players, play sweet tunes for us.

I will reward you richly for it.

20 They pipe up with joy and they happily go with one
another to the violet
Neidhart leads the Duchess and dances about the violet.
Neidhart speaks :

Truly, lady, 1 think it good
That you lift the hat
25 So summer shall appear to you.
Since of all the blossoms
None is more delightful, nor ever will be
Than this noble violet tender
Wliich 1 covered with my hat,

179

30 And since no one deserves the honor more
Than you. Lift the little hat!
Under it is the violet.

The Duchess lifts the hat and they see the turd laying
under it. They are horrified: they look at one another.
35 The Duchess speaks to Neidhart with revulsion:

Oh, Neidhart, how could you?

414 The disgrace that you have done me
Seems too much to me!

To have you play a joke on me
And all the maidens who are here!
5 Believe me in truth,

You shall have a greater disgrace from me
If God grants me life.
Your good word I believed full well.
Your heart is full of infamy.
10 This violet is the devil's gift!
We will rejoin the court.

So the Duchess with her maidens in attendance go silently
to the court and the knigiits remain. Neidhart speaks:

Woe now and forever,
15 Woe my great honor.

That I ever saw the violet.

Woe on what has happened to me!

I stand in disgrace.

It shall cause me pain forever.
20 Woe with pain and sorrow!

I must be separated from

Those many red lips.

And the grace of my lady.

I have lost without being guilty.
25 It would be better if I had never been born

Rather than have engaged in such iniquity.

I want to raise by the hair

The rude churl

IVlio did this disgrace to me

30 And who was stealthily treacherous to me.

If I had been wise

As I am now

I would thought well

Of how I could resist him.
35 Now I am in great disgrace

Caused by the boorish peasants.

I will make him sour,

415 By my word, I mean that.

180

I would warp his leg
Except that he is iniknowii to me.
lie was quick in craft,
5 He hid himself so I wouldn't find him

So I must pay foi- that wliich I never enjoyed,

The first knight G^bein speaks to Ncidliart :

Look Neidhart if I find him

Give me this which I have never enjoyed.

10 Wiosoever of the peasants will stand by him,
Miether many or few,
Young, old, big, or little.
From them we shall hew off their legs
And leave them no life

15 That is the advice I would give.
Truly, Neidhart, believe me.
My life and goods I pledge to you.

The fifth knight speaks:

I am also one whom this concerns
20 Since this does us much evil.

And we must be even more disgraced.

Should we let them go

It would always cause me pain.

And I will always be ready
25 To strike low the rude villagers

Like a pile of ill-stacked bricks.

The sixth knight speaks:

We will put an end to this without delay

And find him who is guilty.
30 Neidhart, take charge of the matter

We don't want to this be.

We want to revenge this with our hands;

That they ever shamed you thus

Must cause me sorrow always,
35 Since it brings me great pain.

416 The seventh knight speaks;

1 see well we are of accord.
Each of us speaks to you
Each will diligently help you.
5 Take from all of us our vow
That none of us will give up,
Ratlier, follow you in good faith.
If we come upon them.
We will let none get away.

181

10 The eighth knight speaks:

Neidhart, If you would bring this to an end.

We should quickly go

To the area near Zeislmaur.

There come many boorish peasants,
15 An unruly large host.

Their chief is called Englmair. ■ .

He has bid them come

To dance a round

With Fridauna, as I will tell you.
20 She is also bringing many serving girls.

There they will have a good dance.

Gump and Epp shall sing at first.

I'hey called the dance eight days ago,

It can come off with ease.

I'
25 Neidhart speaks to his squire: I

Quickly, bring me ray sword.
I will do as you have advised.
We will go to Zeislmaur

And see what the peasants are doing there.
30 Let us put on our armor
I bid you not to leave
In order that you serve me.
Yoju should help me steadfastly.
What you would do, do well!
417 I think the dance is starting
V" Even as we are prepared to go.

The dance will have its end.
Boy, off to Zeislmaur,
5 See what the peasants are doing.
So we will know what to expect.
So none of them escape us.

The boy goes to Zeislmaur to observe what the peasants

are
doing. They dance and the boy dances too. In the
meantime,
10 Neidhart and the knights put on their armor.
After the dance, Englmair speaks:

Has anyone come here
'Alio knovjs a new story
Or how things are at the court now?
15 A messenger told me this morning.
He swore quite solem.nly

The knights have lost their grace at court
Does anyone know why that should be?

182

IVisel, a peasant fills the rhyme and speaks :

20 Yes, cousin Englmair, I know the whole of it.

One named Neidhart

IVho was of the Duchess most beloved

And confident to the Duke,

He came here recently,
25 Searched for and found a little flower.

It could have been a violet.

He covered it with his hat.

Immediately he had exalted spirits.

He left there singing.
30 There was another one tliere who noticed him

UTiom Neidhart did much sorrow.

He wasn't about to let it drop at that.

He plucked the violet

And wanted to avenge himself.
35 He lay in the violet's place

Another violet which he had

And with which he brought the knights from grace,

418 Hebenstreit, a peasant speaks:

Oh, how well he considered it,
He that broke the violet :
How he has well avenged us!
5 We were supposed to dance at court.

There we were struck down like ten pins
Because of his strutting.
Novi? he has lost the honor himself.
He who did this pleases me even more,
10 He who blunted his hate.

Enzlman a peasant speaks:

Gentlemen, I tell you this.

About the envy and the hate

That Neidhart has for us,
15 Of that which he conceived quite happily.

He went into the clover.

There he saw standing a violet.

With joy and exuberance,

He covered it with his hat.
20 He wanted to come to court with it.

He got no use from it.

He never looked around.

Now pay attention,

I did it secretly.
25 I stole the violet

And crapped there in tlie place

Over which the hat on the violet lay.

183

Regenbart speaks to Enzlman:

Good work, Enzlman;
30 He did us a lot of hai-m.

He made us all in ill repute
Among the lords.

Therefore it matters little to me
How much disgrace is brought on him!

35 Ackertrapp a peasant speaks:

It v;ould please me a great deal
419 If he would also come here.

However good he thinks himself,
I and my companions
Will have the honor over him
5 Unless misfortune occurs.

So we will come too and jump up high.
Cousin Englmair, lead again!

The pipes pipe up. The peasants begin to dance again.
After tlie dance, Neidhart's squire goes to Ne i dhart an d
10 the knights and says:

Gentlemen, I have made certain
Englmair is at Zeislmaur
With forty peasants or more
U^ho all hate you.
15 I have it straight from their mouths

They would be happy to see you coming.

If you would have something to do with them.

Start now and do not tarry!

The ninth knight speaks to Neidhart :

20 Neidhart assume the position

Of chief among us.

And go quickly to them

So none of them get away.

If they will stand to fight
25 Tlien we will fell them all.

The tenth knight speaks:

We must go far and wide.
Let us start, it is time.
If none of them v;ill stand us in fight,
30 We will strike them down quickly.

184

The peasants begin to dance again. Fridrauna does not

dance.
She sits in a long cloak near the dance. The knights

come on
the dance to capture the peasants. The peasants flee

except "

for ten or twelve who are captured by the knights.

Englmair
35 hides himself under Fridrauna 's cloak. Neidhart speaks

Hold them fast and lead them away!
420 It is set in my mind

That no one is so proud.

I want to attach them to some wood.

Pipes and flourishes. The knights bind stilts on the
5 peasants' legs one after another. Afterwards the
peasants stand
up and Enzlman speaks.

Oh pain and anguish are ever mine.

Now we must sadly be distraught.

Because of this accursed violet
10 UTiich Neidhart first found.

We must pay a heavy toll.

Wliat a large forfeit

Is that, when none of us

Has his left leg.
15 IVlio will dance now with Fridrauna,

With her and with Waldrauna,

And with the other young maidens.

Since our agility has been taken?

Wlio shall wake the May for us
20 Since we walk on stilts?

We must leave the grass be

And also shun the dance.

At Zeislmaur on the green

Stands Englmair, who still has a whole ham.
25 From us he stole like a thief.

It makes Fridrauna his Heart's desire

Under whose coat he fell.

Thereby saving his leg.

Regenbart speaks :

30 Enzlman, I have heard well
Your rowdy words,
They concern my cousin Englmair.
Be certain before a year is gone
We shall so earnestly care for you

185

35 That the plums and beans
421 You would have eaten will remain in the ground.

My cousin Englmair is so fresh

He doesn't take anything from you

No matter how you now
5 Avoid him. He can eat prunes

And he has proved it well.

In a broad pasture

He craps more than six other peasants.

He let that be known
10 IVlicn lie crapped a hatful.

That our legs are mangled

V/as caused by you alone.

Someone help me to avenge it.

I will break you apart,
15 Head, mouth, teeth and palate.

So you never bite a plum again.

And kno\\/ that I will not let this go.

I v\/ill beat your head to splinters.

Enzlman speaks:

20 Regenbart, believe me

I am as concerned about Englmair as you.

1 swear that as loyally as I should.

1 grant him his good health gladly.

All that we did would have been in vain
25 If it weren't for Englmair.

Therefore, do not think the worst of me.

Go, 1 will give you something.

And

the

peasants

go

to

one

another

Th

e knights

go

to the
court, but Neidh;

art

remains

. The

Dul

:e

speaks to

the

knights

30 Tell me from where you've come now.
Come and pay heed!
IVhere v\fere you this afternoon?
Wiy should you dishonor
My wife who is dear to me?
422 And tell me, as you know,

Wiich of you had the temerity
To cause me this sorrow?
None of you is so dear to me
5 That I wouldn't hang him like a thief.

Parzifal, the second knight, speaks :

Gracious lord, it is truly not our fault.
We have had anxiety
About that story
10 And would set you right

186

On how it came about.

Neidhai-t found the violet.

A peasant noticed him,

IVho secretly had stolen there.
15 He did as all the wicked

And soiled under Neidhart's hat.

As you have heard from our lady.

Then Neidhart came after them

And thought so much of the disgrace
20 That he put them on stilts,

A full thirty-two of them.

Dear sir, now be understanding

And thus have patience.

If none of us is guilty of this
25 Or never wanted it,

You should not make us pay for it.

Von der Rosen, the third knight , speaks :

In truth, gracious sir, you know

That among us there is no one
30 UTio could not swear on his work.

Neidhart is as sorry

As anyone living on earth.

Therefore give him your favor.

This increases your honor full.
35 Neidhart shall promise you

And my lady the Duchess
423 That he shall never grant peace

Against them that took your favor from him.

Should it cost him his life.

The Duke speaks to the knights :

5 Tell Neidhart to come here.
He should take good cheer.
I shall help him as I can
To rid ray wife of her anger for him.

The fourth knight goes to Neidhart and speaks:

10 Neidhart, my gracious lord would have of you

That you should come to the court.

I hope everything goes well for you.

Go and have a joyful spirit.

I hope everything gets better for you.
15 We reviled and disgraced the peasants.

187

Neidhart goes to the court, stands at a distance and
speaks to the Duke:

Gracious loi-d, what do you want,
That you have sent for me.

The Duke answers Neidhart:

20 Neidhart you should know

All the anger and all the hate

V/liich I had for you

I shall a.llow to go out of my heart.

Because of your faithful knighthood
25 And because of your service, steadfast

To my wife and me

You shall serve her again.

i
And he speaks to the Duchess: i

Lady, I do ask this of you.
30 If Neidhart did anything against you
Return your favor.
Since it was not his fault.
Concerning the wicked rude violet.
424 We all know this now.

The fifth knight speaks:

Yes, Lady, I speak as truly as I should.
I vouch
5 That Neidhart was not happy
And he contrived so
That he punished them well.
Thus he broke

Thirty-two of their left legs.
10 They must, without exception
Creep on stilts and crutches.
They can be happy at that.
He behaved in such a knightly way
That you may well restore him in good graces again,

15 The Duchess speaks:

Should he not be in good graces
He might be sorry for
Long service, which he performed
From his childhood on for many years.
20 Since he was well versed in knighthood

With its jousts, mock battles, and knightly skills
My lord Blade him a knight.

188

I know well that many lords
Are sour and bitter

25 About the crimes the peasants do us.

The Duke speaks to the Ducliess:

Uliat your desire is sliall be mine, lady,
I will of my goods
Give and fief him so much
30 That he can live in knightly fashion.
Come lierc to me, Neidluirt,

Then Neidhart goes to him,

I would give some advice to you
425 Think steadfastly of the shame
The peasants have heaped on us
And avenge yourself with manly craft.
Thus retain your knighthood,
5 Strummpuechl and the Kaisertal
Three miles wide in all
Shall be yours,
• Tax, toll, and wine

I will give you as fief,
10 You shall have this from me.

All that which belongs to me there,
I will grant you quite freely.

Neidhart speaks to the Duke:

Thank you. Sir. Your excellence I shall thank forever
15 And will never cease.

All my friends

And all the companions I can get

Shall serve you willingly.

Concerning this which
20 You have so generously granted me,

I believe that such a noble deed

By a prince has never been encountered

From the beginning of the world

As that which you have done me.
25 This must be praised

From my lips

Deep from the bottom of my heart

Without end so long as I shall live.

Such praise must be yours too
30 My dear delicate lady.

The Duchess offers Neidhart her hand.

^■

189

Never was there a more praiseworthy woman.
Her goodness she has granted me
So til at I from my heart's joy
35 Never more forget.
Miile I have life,
426 Miatever service I can do for you
I shall never let go undone.
Sir, I would depart here.
God save you from sorrow.
5 Your good and honor God shall protect.
Bid me and allow me to go.
I want to return to the peasants
And teach them a new dance.

Drink is brought the prince and princess. The Duke gives
10 something to Neidhart to drink and Neidhart gives the

maidens
something to drink one after the other, then goes. The

peasants
begin to dance again and Neidhart comes to them in the

guise
of a sword sharpener. After the dance Eisengrein,

a peasant,
speaks :

15 Englmair, Englmair

Come to this host

With our cousin Matz

So you will not be unhappy.

Lead her in the round
20 So we do not split the dance in two.

The servant girls go to their place. Englmair speaks
to Eisengrein:

Eisengrein how do you get that?

I don't move at your command.

I carry a sword at my side.
25 I vvill let it be sharpened.

The rain

And the wind have made it useless.

I will go this way,

I see a master standing there.
30 I will let him sharpen my sword.

Wagendrilssl a peasant speaks :

I will let mine

Be done too, so it sliines.

190

Englmair, WagendiHssl, Hiunel, Uol Hausknecht, and
Schnabclrausz go to the sword sliarpener.
35 Tl2e__othex' peasants stay at tlieTr~place,
Englmair speaks : '

Dear Master Swoi-d Sharpener,

427 I am a spirited hero.
It's getting on to May.

Matz and Irmel are doing the round.
I must have a new sword .
5 I'm worthy of a girl.
My sword is rusted.
l\Q"iatever it will cost,
You should sharpen it.
Then I shall gladly reward you.

10 Neidhart speaks: ,

Sir I will gladly do that.
I assure you.
In knowledge and mastery
I am well versed.

15 Humel speaks to Neidhart:

Master, take my pay

And make my sword beautiful too!

Neidhart speaks :

Lay it down for me!
20 I shall return it to you

Beautiful, fine, light, and shiny.
Believe you me indeed.

Uol Hausknecht calls Schnabelraus z

Come, come Schnabclrausz!
25 Let's get our swords sharpened too.

Neidhart speaks :

Lay them all down.

I can do this with mastery.

And l^e takes the peasants knives and speaks :

30 And now listen: now look,

428 I am Neidhart the knight
Wi.om all of you disgraced.

You did it to me at this place.

191

You villagers and you booi's!
5 I Imve the swoi-ds by the liilt
I will renovate them in you,
Sticking and thrusting as in a pig.

The peasants take off with Neidhart after them with a

naked sword,
and he grabs Humel and another with him. Neidhart

speaks :

10 Stand you gallows birds,
Let justice be done!
You must ride the gallows.
I can hardly wait.

Humel speaks:

15 Dear lord Neidhart, let me live.

I will give myself as a serf to you.

Neidhart speaks:

■ Silence! You are alien to good advice.

I will hang you from a beam.

20 Neidhart hangs Humel and his campanion. The other
peasants gather at their place. SaurkUbel speaks:

Gentlemen, I will tell you all
We should complain to the Duke
That he hung our companions.
25 Perhaps he will be imprisoned.

Schoppcnswang speaks:

Truly cousin you are right.

Let's go, gentlemen, to the court.

The peasants go to the Duke and complain about Neidhart.
30 Waggendrllssl speaks:

You noble prince of Austria.
We all complain
429 About Neidhart, the evil man,
Mio has done us much sorrow.
We ask you in the name of God ,
To give us his life.
5 Humel hangs there much to our shame.
Neidhart comes from a foreign land.
Humel was a good boy.
He truly did him an injustice.

192

The Duke speaks :

10 Gentlemen, I tell you tluis.

You have great hate and envy for him.

You love him not a v^rit.

You have done liim much evil.

I don't care about this.
15 Now take the dead man

And bury him in the earth.

It will make no difference to him anyway.

WaggendrUssl speaks :

Gentlemen, I tell you truly
20 Englmair caused us this shame.
We should run him through
And avenge ourselves on him.

Englmair speaks:

You are a coward with a vengeance.
25 In truth I say this.
Our friend lies dead.
You all want to fight it out.
Do it with the whore
You yourself pick out.

30 Schlickenbrein speaks:

So you will always pass over
The same that has been done to us.
We want to avenge it here
With blows and threats.

430 Enzlman speaks:

So we shall all right.

And rain blows upon each otlier.

The peasants strike one another and after the fight
5 Hebenstreit speaks:

Gentlemen come now.
We should leave off war.
Englmair now do the round
And let us dance about the May
10 And wait for Neidhart.

If you come across him somewhere.
No matter where he is in the land,
I will bring him to shame.

193

Eisengrein speaks:

15 You gentlemen, I tell you tliis,

I bear hini hate and envy,

And if I knew just enough

I v\;ould toy with him.

He would give me his life
20 Or I am not called Eisengrein.

Englmair speaks:

So wait for the chance
That if he ever dances with us
So we shall come
25 And take his life.

So we must dance about the May again
Leaping and doing the round. l'

Now come all alike I

And let us dance quite spiritedly!

30 Then the peasants dance again. Neidhart comes in the
guise
of a monk. After the dance Schottenschlicker speaks:

You gentlemen, I will tell you
It nears holy days
On- which one tells his guilt
35 And repents his sins.
431 I see a chaplain there.

The sins which 1 have done
I will lay before him
If he will forgive them.

5 Hebenstreit speaks:

I know that gentleman well.
He is full of the holy spirit.
He is named Brother Percholt

I have thought well of him now for a long time.
10 UTiatever one tells him
He forgives immediately.
So I will do as you and
Make a full confession.

Tlie two peasants Schottenschlicker and Hebenstreit
^ ^ go to the monk Neidhart. Schottenschlicker speaks :

Sir, I beg of you humbly

To hear my confession

Of what I repent to you

And what I have committed during my days.

194

20 Ncidhart speaks:

Child, if you would be taught by me
Then I v/ill hear you gladly.
Kneel down good man. Tell me
Miat have you done?

25 Schottenschlicker kneels down before Neidhart and
confesses :

I will tell all.
I begin with the biggest ones.
You should know I bear
Great malice and hate for
30 My enemy Neidhart .

He will not be spared any longer.
Mierever I find him
I will take his life.

432 Neidhart speaks :

I want to tell you good man.
You have done many sins.
Your guilt is too great.
5 You can't be freed by me.
Sit at this place.
I will bring my companion quick.
So he will absolve you.
I am unable to forgive you.
10 Here, drink a good Bernhart
So luck won't leave you.

Schottenschlicker drink s and then lies down and s 1 eeps ,
Neidhart speaks to the other peasants :

God's greetings to you standing there.
15 I have schriven your two companions.

They were too much full of wickedness.

Therefore I will send someone else.

He will forgive them quick and fast.

You dear gentlemen drink with me!
20 There's good wine here.

I have blessed it with St. Joliann's love

Against sprains, against diarrhea, and against every-
thing evil.

Begin, dear Saurktibel.

Se hin, trink ain' gut en Bernhart .

195

As soon as Saui'kUbel drinks he speaks :

25 Sir, tlie wine appeals to me.

If I drank much I would soon be full.

Neidhart speaks :

Gentlemen, take tlie bottle and all drink!
See how the wine will please you.

30 The peasants drink and get drunk and fall
to the ground. Geirsnabel speaks:

Thank you sir, you're a brave one.
This wine is good and strong too.
We all like it,
433 We are all full. i'

My companions have laid themselves down to sleep;.
I must be myself down too.

And he falls asleep too. Neidhart speaks :

I will change all of you gathered here,
I'll shear each of your pates.
I will shear you down to the ears
So all of you will be fools.
Now lie here you evil apes;
10 You must sleep three days
Then I will return here
iAnd have some more fun with you.

Neidhart puts monks' habits on them and then leaves

them.
Madlhaubt wakes, stands, and speaks:

15 In God's name what manner is this?

Is it me or isn't it?

W^lat happened to me

That I vvas made into a priest?

Have I changed today
20 And become a monk without learning?

IVlio gave this to me?

I think I was a peasant.

Rotzkatter speaks:

Now what has happened to me too?
25 Now I am quite bare

And I know well I had a liair.
Now I am shorn completely
And have a monk's habit on.
Yet I am unlettered.

196

30 Gcii'schnabcl speaks:

Now look at me, I am a priest.
What a lazy living I will make.
If I knew singing or reading
I would want to be a monk forever.

434 Schoppinswang speaks:

Dear companions, we are brothers
And are indeed beshorn.
And we wear the preaching orders .
5 Therefore we will not give it up.
We will go to a monastery
And stay with otlier monks.

Rotzkatter speaks:

I will give some good advice.
10 If we find one who is learned

We should go with him in the order
And be subordinate to him.

Hebcnstreit speaks:

Dear companions I see someone far away.
IS I imagine he is some foreign lord.
Perhaps God will look after us here
By having him enlighten and teach us.

Neidhart comes in the guise of a monk and speaks:

God's greetings my dear brothers.

20 The peasants answer and speak:

God's thanks, dear sir so fine!

Neidhart speaks:

Wliat is your business here?

Schoppenswang speaks :

25 Sir, we don't know how

It is that we have been done so;
Ifliy we changed to monk's habit
And know neither singing nor writing?
Three days ago we v^ere peasants.

30 Neidhart speaks:

197

I tell yoii dear children,

435 This is God's sign

That he has changed all of you.
All of you together will be fully learned
Mien the holy ghost coiiies to you.
5 I know a monastery which is new.
There are few brothers there.
If you would like to go from here with me
I'll lead you there today.
The Duke respects me there,
10 I am his good chaplain regularly.

For my sake he will gladly support you.

Geirschnabel speaks:

God's thanks, dear holy man.
If it is near or far,
15 We will all go with you.

Dear Sir, retain us in your goodness.

Neidhart speaks :

I happily do what I should.
Come then. Brothers, and be of good cheer.
20 Stay until I ask the lord about this.
I will come as quickly as I can.

Neidhart goes to the Duke and greets him but th e
peasants ~~

remain at a distance. Neidhart speaks :

God's greetings, dear Sir and dear Lady.
25 Help me build a monastery.

God has sent us to you.

I have brought a whole convention.

I have blessed them. all.

Come, whoever would confess,
30 He can rid himself of sin.

The Duke fills the rh )'jp e and speaks:

Sir Neidhart, you are a good man.

V/liat do you have in mind with these monks

That you brought them here?

436 You must build a monastery for them yourself.

Neidhart speaks :

Dear Sir, it's just peasants
IVhom I have shorn.

198

5 They will be very angry today
Wlien I tell them the truth.
That I am Neidhart the knight.

Ncidhart leads the peasants in the monastary. The Duke
accompanies him. Schoppenswang speaks :

10 Oh what trouble I have

My belly is empty.,

I would gladly do without my m.onk ' s habit.

It lies heavy on my head.

And if I had some liot whey
15 I would trot about quite spiritedly.

Madenhaubt speaks :

Yes, I too would happily eat. |'

I hear the calves calling '

Because I will soon lie dead from hunger.
20 If I had a piece of bread.

If I were home at my father's place,

Then I would have a roast of veal.

There stands ray father's mare and

I'/liinnies at the gate.
25 No one hears her sound.

I want to sing and call.

The peasants sing with one another:

Oh, I have a gaping hole.
If I only had a big meal.
30 The cow is yet uninilked.

How can I fill myself now.

The Duke and Neidhart go out again and the peasants
begin to sing again, each one what he will.
Schnabelrausz speaks:

35 Oh how low all you are.
437 I will hit you with a club.

The monk has indeed made fools of us.
I know for certain
Truly that he is Neidhart himself
5 Mio disgraces us all the time.

Wagendrtissl speaks:

The disgrace be yours too.

You were the one wlio led us here.

10

199

Ackertrapp speaks :

Well, let's go. We will all strike
liven if we get caught.

Th^peasants strike one another. The first knight

GSbein ~~ ~~

goes to the" Duke and speaks :

Good sir, the monks are without honor,
15 They strike one another

And they disturb the land with great conflict.
Do you allow me to drive tliem out?

The Duke speaks to GMbein:

20

25

Yes, go tell them they are free.
Everyone go from where he came.

The knight Gab^ein_goes and speaks to the peasants:

Dear children, you must follow me.
Your fathers cows stand yet unmilked.
Go home, you without grace!
Or I'll strike you with a club!

The peasants run out of the cloister to their place
Milchfridl speaks: "" ~~ " '

From where did you gentlemen come?
Have you been playing with the ball?

Schlickenbrein speaks:

30 No, my dear cousin.
^^^ Truly, Neidhart shall be unhappy.

He is completely a bad rascal.
He made us all monks
And he was one too.
5 In this way this happened to us.

Eisengrein speaks:

If he was a monk.

He made us all fools.

We can't protect ourselves.

He is truly a devilish man.

Now we should see

If we can outsmart him

So we can take his life.

Then we can jump with joy.

10

200

15 Lucifer calls all his companions out of hell and speaks

Come, come, come!

All my companions I call.

The otltcr devils run out of hell. Sathanas speaks :

Master, what do you want now?
20 Tell us, we are ready to do it.

Lucifer speaks:

Silence and heed my words!

They are spoken for your benefit;

And heed this well!
25 They are spoken of a devilish family.

Poldrius, Paldrius, Poldrianus.

These are strong devil words.

UTiich you have seldom heard.

I will tell you where they come from.
30 The wise King Solomon

Put them in a glass

That was tall and wide.

There they remained laying within

Until 1 almost gave them up.
439 Ulien these words were spoken

The glass and they broke apart

And have since conceived such craft

Tliat many souls were brought to hell.
5 With these same words praise me!

Since I'm

Your king and lord.

Honor me as is meet and right.

The devils sing in chorus the song:

10 Lucifer, our lord

We shall honor you,

Poldrius, Paldrius, Poldrianus.

Lucifer speaks :

That v;as a good song
15 You were bidden sing.

Sing it to me once more.
I deserve it.

They sing again.

Lucifer!

201

20 Lucifer preaclies a sermon:

Now silence: I will let you know

IVliy I brought you here.

A new disgrace

Has happened in the land.
25 We will make good use of it.

It is newly come.

As I now tell you.

The peasants don't want to bear the fact

That the knights and their children
30 Are differently clothed than they.

They diminish

The nobles stature every day.

The peasants rise

And the knighthood falls
440 Just as you have just been told.

Heretofore a few short years

No peasant was so rich.

They all had
5 To wear rough cloaks.

How that was I will tell you.
; They were lined with flax.

They also wore, I did not invent this.

Few do that now.
10 A rough cowl and worthless hat

And a burlap jumper

And a coat of linen.

He was a rich man

Mio could have both.
15 His shoes were held on with strings.

It was seen to at the same time

That they observed the Wendish custom

Of the hair cut over the ears.

Wien they went to war
20 They hung cloaks on their shoulders.

At that time, too.

If they should ride to market.

Their horse was not grand

The saddle was of uncovered wood,
25 The ring was of burlap.

The girth was of bast.

The stirrup was woven of willow wands

And tied to the saddle with rope.

Uliile they observed these customs,
30 They had peace in that day.

But now the peasants

Have dressed themselves like knights

With weapons and with an air.

Now it won't be good anymore

202

35 Since the peasants and their children
Will wear long hair.

441 Their cowls are scalloped and long--so long
They wipe their asses with it.

Their jackets are tight,

A yard and a lialf long,
5 So when they put one on

They can't even walk.

Their coats are long

And cause them so much trouble

That they can't turn around.
10 If they should need to.

In faith before they could get a hand free

The enemy would all have left

So not a one remained.

Their shoes are cut
15 From wood in the courtly fashion

So the hose shine out.

Over thera they place their spurs.

They go about a- jingling.

Singing dirty songs :
20 Thus they please Fridrauna.

But from this day,

On the earth.

There shall be no proper peace

Between the peasants and the knights.
25 With manly craft a knight

Has pursued the war

And brought much sorrow to them.

They say: I never thought

He would make a full thirty-two cripples.
30 Let him think what he may

About their fighting among themselves

And murdering like dogs.

Their souls for us will be

A pretty number.
35 I bid you.

And promise you thereby

By the love for you.

Go among them and mingle!

442 You should get the peasants
So they can't harm anyone.

Then many will be stricken do^^m.
There is no question about it.
5 Their souls will all be mine.
Now be ready!
Who brings his love
And can give it full
Shall have the tenth soul.

203

10 Sathanas speaks:

Master, I will ever be

Your friend Sathanas.

You know well of my slyness

And of the work I will do for you
15 And have done now for you.

Thus I made

The first anger and envy

That lies between the peasants and knights.

The one when Neidhart found the violet.
20 I made him shamed

By a rude wild villager.

I let hira know, as I can,

Uliere the violet stood.

This started the envy
25 So the peasants were injured.

And to Sir Neidhart

Came his friends and companions to help.

They helped him bring them low.

The peasants were a large number.
30 Then they struck off

Their left legs

Miich I gathered up.

I tell you in truth this happened.

I'll show you them if you want to see.

35 Lucifer speaks to Sathanas:

Gather them up and carry them to Hell
443 And tell our companions
They should guard them well

Or I'll strike them about the shoulders.

Now their feet are ours.
5 I hope all of their souls will be mine.

Lasterpalch speaks:

Yes, Lucifer, it will be done,

I will go to them now.

I will give them such advice
10 That they will care

Little for body or life.

I will also teach

Them arrogance and exubei^ance.

Greediness and foreign custom,
15 Play, seduction, and drunkeness

And false oaths.

204

Lead tlicm to lasciviousness and murder.

Betrayal and bad words.

Lying, deceiving and homicide,
20 The child to make its father angry.

Back talk and meddling;

All manner of wickedness I'll liang on them.

All I can conceive.

And I will make sorrow and strife
25 By day and night.

Morn and evening.

No peace will they have.

Rather murder and blows.

Lucifer speaks :

30 Thank you, dear boy.

If you do that, you do right.
I will always tliank you
And never forsake you.
I will reward you greatly.
35 Swiftly I will crown you.
Sit ' twixt me,
444 I will reward you.

Lasterpalch:

Oh what a great promise is that.
I can always be thankful for it.
5 Now it must go rightly
As I've told you.

Lucifer speaks to the other devils:

You other devils; as you are.

Whoever has the best craft,
10 Him I will especially reward.

You have my promise.

You shall have leave of me now.

Everyone, as best he can.

Should fill my needs,
15 So Hell will be filled with souls.

Apply yourselves vigorously.

Run quick and do not tarry longer.

The devils run among the peasants and make war and

discord.
The prologue of the play speaks :

20 Listen, 1 will enlighten you.
Englmair with his friends
Will come to Zcislmaur again.

25

30

205

He brings with him, as I have it,
Sir Neidhart and Ids friends.
Neidhart will be secretly cai-ried
In a cask by the wine.

He shall make great sorrow and distress
For tlie peasants

As they did to him with the violet.
It will cause him great pain.
He will be pressed close by the wine
So Englmair won't become aware of him.
Englmair brings with him a great host,
One hundred maids or more.
35 Fridrauna will join
445 With Englmair.

Neidhart has found out

That the peasants number more than forty.
And the peasants come with craft
5 To capture Neidhart.

They are very anxious for this.
Two of the peasants' confidants
Come here with song.

They both come in the same m.ode of dress,
10 Each has a garland

In which are flowers gold, red, and brown.
They don't want anyone telling stories.
U^ho brings his chatter with him.
They discover by his very deed.
15 He will lose his life immediately.
They liave sworn an oath to this.
Englmair has a cousin
IVlio gives good advice.
He is called Regenbart
And is well known in Bravant,
In the land, as a thorny man.
He will dance with them at the place.
He also has many companions;
He will take them with liim.
25 They are coming here with shouts
I will name them for you:
Walkentritt and Scheuhenpflueg,
Renpart and Polsterprouch,
Ackerkitz and Pfutzner,
30 Irrenfrid and Lungentriefer,
Gleiselbrecht and Milchfridl,
Schottenschlicker and Hellrigel,
Erkenwolt and Wiilenbolt,
Gumprecht and Gumpolt,
35 Pestelman and Schnabelrausz,
Hainkam and Pagkenpaus,
Nagenranft and Ackertrapp,
Rolling and Maulaff,

20

206

446 Polsterpuob and Schlickenpi'ein,
They shall be the foreslngers.
Egkereich shall have a lyre,
Schurzenesl shall beat tlie drum,

5 Gbtz and Panz,

Shall do the dance.
Fridrauna shall have her promenade
With her maidens and dance
In the village manner.
10 I'/lioever will join the dancers now.
Come together here.

Then the peasants dance with the serving girls. They

have knives
at their sides. Schottenschli cker speaks :

You wild ones who are watching us, ,1

15 Leave off your chatter . |

And let us give our leaps full sway.

Wioever cares to remain at ease

And escape a fresh wound

Will leave us in merriment,
20 Or we will strike him a deep wound

UTiich never will be knit.

We will crease his flesh

So that one might drive a plough through

And never close the furrow.
25 Such are the blows I can strike.

Scheuhenpf luog speaks :

Now take a look at this sword.

With it I'll have it known

That I suffer no man.
30 I will hew him through the collar.

Lungs, and liver I can split

So they never join again.

Steel and iron were never so hard

That I could not cut through brain and beard
35 And make deep wounds in his bones.

I can do this all alone.

447 V.n-ien I set myself to fight

A whole land cannot resist me.
I say in truth,
, . All those who are prepared
5 And v;ear a sword

Are insufficient against us.

Be they many or few

I consider them no more than a feather wedge.

Englmair speaks to his companions:

?07

10

20

You gentlcinen heed my words!
I would make you free of further disgrace
From Sir Neidhart
So he can't weaken.
Bind or capture us
15 As he often has.

He has overreached himself here.
Should he be as furious as a bear.
Stronger than life itself
And wiser than the wild boar.
Or crafty as a fox.
He can never escape us.
If he comes within our sight
We will take his life from him.
You gentleraen, if you will have it so,
25 Raise your hands and say "yes."
Do this for my sake
If you would be his enemy.

The peasants answer :

Yes! Yes!

20 Englmair speaks to his companions:

True companions, thank you!
Noiv don't tarry. It is becoming late.
If we do it right it will be done.
^^^ Yo" '^now well what we have conceived.

Each think what you can
And spiritedly begin it.
So Fridrauaa will think ill of no one
5 And the maidens will not be hateful
And therefore take the dance from us.
We would always bo disgraced.

Regenbart speaks:

Englmair, don't be sad!
10 My companions have composed

A handsome proud step

IVhich is in the new courtly manner.

They do the step up on their toes

So their heels don't touch.
15 Their spurs jingle.

They sing the song.

They make many a heart happy.

They step high and they step low.

I know well no knight can

208

20 Do the new dance we have.

Therefore, one knows for sure
We want hair and dresses
To bounce and flounce
And wc will dance with joy.

25 Englinair speaks :

No knight v;as ever like tliis.

Thank you, cousin Regenbart.

Let your dance be shown.

Look, here come the women!
30 Eckereich, the lyre player.

Fridrauna, too,

Clothed in a wonderful dress.

She carries a pretty mirror

IVhich must be mine today.
35 There can be no question about it.

Even if some one sliould strike me dead,
449 I must have that mirror.

Do the dance to your content.

Here comes Fridrauna!

Fridrauna with her maidens dance there. Tlien the
peasants

5 start to dance. The Innkeeper brings a cask of wine.

And after the dance, the Innkeeper's boy hawks the wine
and says :

My master has made a fine wine.

All should have some.
10 It's thick and bitter.

Beware, you counts and knights.

You nobles and peasants.

If you drink much of it, it will make you sour.

It is dregs and it is impure,
15 It is what my master has in his cask.

Englmair speaks:

I tliink without a doubt
We must taste tliis wine
Wliich this stranger has brought.

20 Regenbart fills the rhyme and says:

You have considered well.
If Fridrauna would go with us there, it
Would be an honor and quite a thing.
I wa:nt to know that for certain.
25 Let us go and ask her to go with us.

209

Englinair, Ucl Hausknecht and Regcnbart go to Fridrauna.
Englmair speaks:

Oh Fridrauna, could it be

That you and your maidens
30 Would go for wine with us?

IVe will stand your debt

So you will speak ill of no one.

Your money will not be taken.

We'll pay for all of you
35 And I'll pay for you, Fridrauna.

450 Fridrauna says :

I thank you kindly for that
UTiich you have offered.
You needn't stay here longer
5 I will not go to the wine. I

I am not prepared.
Also it is not my convenience.
I care nothing for your money.
I came here for the dance's sake.
10 I have much in my own right.

If I drink, I'll pay for it myself.

Englmair speaks:

Since you don't care for it,
And our money is not needed by you,
15 We will pour

A measure or two ourselves.

Go, Uel Hausknecht, and bring the wine.

We will, in the meantime, be by them. [The girls]

Uel Hausknecht brings the wine and says:

20 God bless the wine

Englmair and his companions

Hereby give you m.aidens.

They request the pleasure

That you don't turn it down.
25 Drink hearty, they will pay to your satisfaction.

After the drink, Englmair says:

Fridrauna, dear friend of mine.
If you would care to be so kind
As to give me the mirror!
30 Should God grant me life
I will serve you always.
So I would pay you fully.

210

451 Fridrauna speaks :

You're right about the custom.

One which the peasants observe.

If someone does something really good,
5 They don't let it go unnoticed.

You want to have your dance esteemed

As I understand it.

The mirror is mine, let that be known.

There is none among you
10 Mio can possess it

Unless I give it to him.

I would begrudge him liis possession

Unless he come by it in a nice way.

I've considered in my heart,
15 IVho does tonight the best

With grace and singing.

With dancing and leaping,

Shall get the mirror

And dear little garland of mine.

20 Regenbart goes to his com.panions and says :

You gentlemen, step over here.

And hear the news.

Fridrauna thanks you kindly

Fo.r the wine you gave.
25 She brings a mirror and a garland.

If you all come to the dance.

To the one who does best

(this advice all need well),-'-

I mean with handsome singing
30 And with dancing and with springing

And other handsome deeds

In the new fashion.

She will give the mirror and wreath.

Be happy in the dance
35 And make Fridrauna endeared to you.

If you would have the gift,

And thus we will achieve honor.

452 I will return to Englmair.

He goes there. GOtz speaks:

<%■
Gentlemen, ivho thinks
l\hat Englmair is doing is right?
5 He gives our wine to the wom.en

And thereby wants to be the best.

sic

211

He endears himself to Fridrauna
With laughter and chatter
So none of us can get the mirror.
10 I know well he wants it himself.

Scliott ens ch Ticker speaks:

Do I hear now you're talking?
We sliould be happy
We have someone
15 Uho can get along v/ith Fridrauna.
We should not begrudge him
Because he gave her our wine.

Raunz speaks:

Listen, it doesn't mean anything to you.
20 You talk like a plough boy.

If you go home tonight your wife

Will drive you out again.

I swear in truth, as I should.

That I am full of anger.
25 Englmair gets the mirror

I'll catch him by the hair

And cut off his head

And scalp his golden hair.

He. may rather wish he did not get the gift.
30 That I'll swear in truth.

Rotzkatter speaks:

Truthfully, friend, you say rightly.
Here are so many good boys
Wio paid for the wine.
453 Should the use and honor there from
Be Englmair 's alone?
Who thinks it is good.
I never said so.
5 I will not suffer him ''

Because he wants to liave it better in all ways
IVhether we have little or much.
He wants to push us around.
How long shall we stand it?

10 WagendrUssl speaks:

In truth this is bad
That he joined
With Fridrauna.

Du redest, als du gepachcn hast,

212

I must think of the time
15 He wretchedly deserted us

And cowardly walked away from us

And went under Fridrauna's coat,

Mien our left legs were taken.

Then he also joined with Fridrauna.
20 I'll never again allow it.

I'll tend to his disgrace

So his leg will be crooked,

And he must be like us

For all of his airs.

25 Milclifridl speaks:

Truly you have thought well.
Let us do it to its consummate end!
We will not kill him.
Rather we vv-ill bring him to grief.
30 I will help the best I can.

I will not give this up for anyone's sake.
I say this in truth,
I will be the first to start
' To bring him to grief,
454 Wiether it cost little or much.

Wisel speaks :

I think you can't be silent.
I know vihy you devise such plans.
5 We come here for the sake of dancing.

The war had robbed us of our happiness.
Therefore let your war be
And pay the innkeeper for the wine
And let us start our dance again.
10 During the time we have the dancers here

We could be entirely successful with Fridrauna.

Come, I will sing one for us.

The best song I can sing

The one I have newly learned.

15 And he sings what he wants to. Eaglmair speaks :

God bless you, Fridrauna.
Honor my service and think of me
And let the mirror be mine.
So I shall ever thank you
20 IVliile I live on earth.

Let Regenbart liave the garland.

My cousin who stands beside you.

And he sliall never let you go unthanked.

213

Fri^rauna speaks : ^

25 Englmair, you know well

That I shall give this to no one

Other than one who is a great hero at leaping

And an angel at dancing,! '

And who appeals to ray heart completely.

So let your begging be!

30

Englmair speaks_: ■

I have lost it.
May God look after us.
Our companions want to do the dance.
455 Wish me luck. I must leave.

And_they_get_jet__to dance. Englmair speaks to the
innkeeper: ~ — ■

Innkeeper, let us try the wine.
None of us shall go from here
5 And let you lack payment for the wine.

You shall have no sorrow from us. ' ' .

Thg.__Innkeeper answers him and_jpeaks: •

I know you well enough.
You won't be indebted to me.
Were it a thousand times as much,
I would never believe you.

Frjjrauna_Jalbera^he^ther maiden, speaks:

Come you maidens and be ready

To be both early and late,
15 U'e must be at this dance.

Do this for me

So you shall have a good air.

Eckereich, start with the lyre!
20 And court one another.

Iil2E_yi£Xj!£]l£.l,_Ji2g]£ai^^id his peasants on one
side and

F^ridraunaj^hJieiM^^

Jhj min^or^qmj-ridrau^^

H^dRncei-Jith her maidens . ScLuvkuhTTp-^^j: — ^

10

Und an tanzen auserwelt,

214

25 Indeed, Englmair, this is too much.

Til is can mean some hard play for you.
Who shall think it good
That you so rudely behave
And take the mirror by force?
30 Wiat right do you assume now so quickly
Over Fridrauna v;ho is my girlfriend.
Englmair, you should know
That I won't stand for it.
456 You must tell me the truth and
Pay me back completely.
Or I will give you a knife thrust.

Geirschnabcl s peaks:

5 Englmair, you rude man.
You have rudely acted
To pull the mirror from Fridrauna
And break the tie on which it liung.
Oh, that you never stood by her
10 And caused us such disgrace.

If you would care to injure me

You can reflect evilly on aood friends.

You must always regret it.^

15 Englmair speaks:

I have the mirror in my hand
And I know what I have done.
Mioever would follow ray example
Will renew his disgrace.
20 I will make the mirror unusable.

You may be angry or you may laugh.

It's all the same to me.

Come on! Wlioever cares to come!

25 And he throws the mirror on the ground and pulls his
knife from leather. Scheuhenpflueg speaks:

Wait, what has he done to us?
He broke the mirror!
We honored him so long.

Seint ain mal dass ir nit nach ir s t e 1 1

Und alios auf unser laster get.

Wolt ir mich nit~a"n sc"iKi(ren"lTa"lten

Ir moclit wol g uot freunt schcltenc k

Un dass stat machet neu7~

Es muess cuch wUrlich alzeit gereuen.

215

He swore he was our lord.
30 Tried companions now draw your swords,

Tlie dance is now a free for all!

TlTey_pun_their swords and knives from leatlier and
strike ~~ ~~ ~ —

one another an_d_strike_offj2iTe of Englmair's legs

and stop ~~ •

fighting. ¥fkenwolt speaks:

35 ivliat are you going to that man
457 mio never did you any harm?

Turn your weapons to the fight
Against Neidhart , who lies in the cask
And let Englmair recover.
5 I think nothing could be better.

Pestelman speaks:

Is this true Erkenwolt?

Erkenwolt fills the rhyme :

10

20

25

If it isn't true then you should never trust me
He is lying in a cask by the wine,

Pestelman fills the rhyme :

So go then my companions.
We will be there quickly
As quickly as we take his life,
15 So he shall be ours.

^^^^-^^^l-£^i5fi2l.LiHLl2_iJ}£_^££Ji. Neidhart speaks to
his squire: ~~ ~~ —

Quick and bring us the horses.

The peasants have pulled their swords

And all are running here.

I think they have me in mind.

Gumprecht speaks:

Truly you have no done right

To strike your chief

'.*/lio always gave you good advice

And was in all ways in the best status.

If Englmair were in sight

Sir Neidhart would not have recovered.

He moved so quickly

And fought too spiritedly

216

30 To have me do Iiim such a truly evil deed;
To have us take his life.
Now put up your swords you heroes.
We shall not be fighting anymore.
458 Grant that he will be wliole again.
The one we have stricken to death.

Fridrauna speaks:

Oh why have I come here,
5 Now that Englraair is taken.

I think he has lost his life.
Him, whom I chose as my beloved.
If he had only caused you pain!
Since this dance was ever thought of
10 It has brouglit me great pain.

Himlgart the third maiden speaks:

Fridrauna, my dear companion,
Englmair your beloved
Will not die.-^
15 He is straightening and speaking.
I can say this in truth
As T saw it myself.

Fridrauna answers her:

Oh God will that it is so.
20 Then my heart would remain happy.

Otherwise I could never again conceive happiness,
My heart wculd need remain in pain.

The other servant Gesli speaks:

Believe me Fridrauna,
25 As little happened to hira as you.
If he has in his left leg
A wound, it is little.
It will not kill him.
Therefore leave off your sorrow.

30 Maulaff speaks:

Truly it makes me sick with pain.
We will stand here no longer.
I fim angry and discomforted

IWirt am leben nicht.

217

459 That Englmair has lost
His left foot.

I must always regret that.
Help me carry him from there,
5 I v\'ant to get him a doctor
So he'll be well again.
I'll lielp him the best I can.

Schurzenesl speaks:

Truly his discomfort makes me sad.
10 I say this on my word of honor.

They carry Englmair there. Neidhart comes riding to
meet them and speaks :

So my dear man, who did this? l'

How great a wound a blow can make! '

15 It can split people's

Feet from their ankles,

I understand that well.

Say, my good man, who is the wounded man

\Vho has been led into such evil straits

20 And how did it happen to him?

Milchfridl speaks:

I will truly tell you.

'A'e called this dance of praise .

Thirteen days ago.
25 It's said there came

To us a Sir Neidhart

IvTio vexed us severely,

And made cripples of us.

Today he conceived
30 A truly unusual slyness.

I will tell you what that is.

He had himself packed in a cask

In which there was wine.

He lay there covertly
35 And saw all our drunkeness,

460 Hoping thereby to injure us
Conceive him sorrows.

It is a dishonor and a
Great pain in our hearts.

5 Neidhart speaks:

Ai, my dear man, go on.

With tliat consul came

He that you did not hew him through

If he was in the cask.

218

10 Schnabelrausz speaks:

Truly he lay so still

Tliat we walked

About the cask and about the wine.

And yet we could neither see nor hear him.
15 There was a cry on the road.

All of a sudden he rose out of the cask

And slyly left here.

Had we caught him

He would have never recovered
20 Even if he were a gymnast!

Neidhart speaks :

Miat would you give someone
I'flio sent him to you
And joined you
25 So you might liave your way with him!

Schottenschlicker speaks:

Ah, Lord God, if it might be
That he would lie again by the wine
As he did today,
30 No day could be so dear to me.
We will give as reward to him
IVho brings him to rights
461 The best horse

Anywhere in the land
That any man would pay for;
V/liether it costs little or much.
5 We would be revenged, if you please.
So we want to have our way with him.

Neidhart speaks:

Now heed my best advice:

I hate hira too.
10 IVhat you do to him does not pain me.

My father left me great holdings

Which the Duke had fiefed to him,

I am not yet resigned to this.

It seems to me to be advisable
15 Not to openly liunt him.

Rather construct some secret sorrow for him.

1 say this on my word of honor.

Mark me well!

If I brought him here
20 Like that post before you.

So that I could do him some great sorrow.

219

How would that sti"ike you?
If you would fell him.
Let me test you first,
25 So that my work be not for nothing.

Scheuhenpf luog speaks :

You shall soon see it.

We will hew him so thoroughly.

Head, arm, ribs, and body,
30 Tliat one piece won't remain by another.

Tried heroes and brave warriors.

Pull your sharp blades

And let this gentleman see

IVhat shall happen to Neidhart.
35 Then he can clearly see

That we are in earnest .

462 And they pull their weapons from leather and
strike against the post. Neidhart speaks:

You gentlemen put your swords back now!

I see well you will be in earnest.
5 Would you promise me at this place.

As you said before.

That you will give a charger

Or else a reward of.

Should it be a hundred marks?
10 Promise me, too, that you will not allow

Him to recover.

IVlien 1 brought him here.

So I shall at this moment

Ride to where the Duke is.
15 I'll take my friends with me.

I'll goodly beg the Duke

To enfief me with his holdings.

I know in truth that he will gladly do this,

The Duke doesn't care for him either.
20 Now you want him dead.

If it comes to pass he gives me his holdings,

I would be a rich man.

I promise you, that is certain, that

He will be back in the cask tomorrow.
25 Therefore, be by the wine

And put him in such a great pain

As you can conceive.

Give me the horse or the reward.

Scheuhenpf luog speaks:

30 All that he wants.
Be great or small

220

We should give it Lo liim.
I Now all come nearby!

So Neidhart shall copie hei-e, to oiu- joy,
35 Tomorrow in a cask.
Both young and old,
463 If we promise something, we will keep it.

Neidhart speaks:

As dear as truth is you
Promise my companions, too.

5 Scheuhenpf luog speaks :

We promise happily whom ever you name
It sliall be done by morning.

Seventh knight speaks : f

Gentlemen, promise us in this way too:
10 Raise your hands and say "Yes."

And the peasants raise their hands and speak:

Yes! Yes!

Neidhart speaks:

Gentlemen, I want your leave.
15 To leave the arrangements

Until tomorrow.

So each of you think of what he can

So he does the best.

God be with you. I will leave you.
20 Serve the Duke!

Now God bless you!

The peasants start again to dance, and Neidhart
with his knights ride to the court. The Duke speaks
to Neidhart :

Neidhart, my dear friend,
25 You must come to me.

If you know something new, tell me!

How stands it between the peasants and you?

Neidhart speaks:

Good Sir, I will tell you truly.
30 I lay upon a wine wagon
By tlie wine in a cask

221

464 So I could find out better
IVliat they wanted to do.
There was a second in there.
I don ' t know who it was .

5 They went with drawn swords to the house.

As if the devil were after them.

Sir, if I were a mouse

It would have been to my advantage.

I came craftily from it
10 So they would not see me.

My squire came to help me

With the horses. Then I rose up.

They were hev\/ing one another

And had wounded their chief;
15 Struck off his left leg.

Then they enveighed against me quite unhappily.

First they all began to threaten me.

The Duke speaks to Neidhart:

Come here and sit, Neidhart.
20 As your lady and I

Wished we had been there

I say this in all truth.

Could I secretly come there

So they won't know of my observation?
25 And should they show their manners.

It would make me happy for a year.

The Eighth knight speaks:

Well, Sir, don't go there!

I say this in all truth
30 That you are seeing now

I'vTiat airs they have.

And they threaten to do them to Neidhart.

They want to prepare him like a chicken.

They spoke in truth!
35 If he comes again as he had come to them before

To the dance at Zeislmaur,

465 They would leave little of him.

The Duke speaks to the knights :

Did he not come near them

So to let himself converse with them?

5 The Ninth knight speaks :

If no one named him.
They wouldn't know him.

222

, He closed an eye,

As he has many tricks,
10 So they could not recognize him.

Then they began to speak with him.

They promised to give him a hundred marks

Or a charger or other horse

Worthy of this money,
15 If he would bring Neidhart to rights.

He promised in turn

That he would send

Sir Neidhart to Zeislmaur.

Then all the peasants shouted-'-
20 That he would pull himself into a cask

As he did tonight.

There they wanted to strike him so he would never

Come out living.

The Duchess speaks to Neidhart : I

25 Now don't let yourself be too quick!
If tliey come so near
You that they can recognize you.
Then they may take your life from you.

The first knight speaks :

30 I will tell you, lady, what was done this evening,
Sir Neidhart just spoke there.
A post was to play his part
And lie by the wine

And he was supposed to have brought him there.
466 He dared them to strike it
At a moment they were ready
To fight , each one ,
Their swords drawn in contention,
5 They hew the post to little pieces.
Wien I observed this
It frightened me sore indeed
And I was so choked up
I had rather been in the tenth land.

10 Duke speaks :

This is quite bad for you, Neidhart.
If they come across you on some trip
I know well they won't let this drop.
They will strike you dead!

Do Schriren a He die pauren.

223

15 Neidhart speaks :

Really, Sir, I'm not in danger

If I only notice them in time

So that I can get on my horse

They will neither injure nor use me.

20 The Duke speaks to Neidhart:

I shall give you support.
I know well, that in my memory
There is no faster horse.
Should you have the misfortune
25 To have your horse wounded.

This horse will save your health.

The Duchess speaks:

Neidhart, be v\/ithout sadness.
I will not allow you to go unrewarded.
30 I promise you four long cloths from Ghent.
All tliose present here.
Together must say
That they have never seen better cloths.

467 Neidhart speaks to the Duchess:

Lady, I thank you for your noble deeds,
IVhich you have shown me often
/\nd done many-a-day.
5 Since I don't really serve

Nor honor you enough

This is really much more than good of you.

The Duke speaks to Neidhart :

Neidhart you serve us well
10 iVhen you observe the peasants customs.
Thereby you bestow your thanks.
And that is thanks enough for us.
You should think nothing of it.
Bring drink! We want to have our cheer.

15 Drinks are brought and with this the play ends,

APPENDIX C
The Lesser Neidhart Play

The Lesser Neidhart Play is found in the same manuscript as the
Greater Neidhart Play. It appears as number twenty-one in Keller's
Fastnachtspiele, XXX, 191-198.

The Play ^

191 . THE NEIDHART PLAY

Now listen all you gentlemen.

Here comes Neidhart the mighty knight.
5 He will do a play for us.

If it concerns anyone.

Close your pockets and your purses

So no one grabs inside.

There is a crew of wanderers going about.
10 Those who don't leave off their jeering

Will soon be so stricken by us

One will have to carry him away.

Now who likes our diversion

And gives us a gift
15 We will all join in its consumption

And thank him kindly too!

A Knight speaks:

I am a knight from Milan.
A Duchess sent me here.
20 In courtliness we are to come together,
All war is outlawed here.

The Duchess speaks :

Sir Neidhart, my dear servant.

When will you bring the fine violet?

If you know of it, tell me instantly.

Doch get daher ein erbergs geslecht,

224

225

192 Neidhart speaks to the Duchess and secretly
puts the violet dovm, covering it witli his hat.

Good lady of Austria
Give me your hand quite virtuously:
5 I will lead you to a meadow green
And show you this pretty violet.
I hope it brings you joy and cheer.
I have covered it with my hat.
We would like to dance the round about it,
10 With your maidens in the month of May

Adelhart speaks to her husband:

Englemair, my dear husband,
Let us about this fine violet
Dance. 1 think it meet and right.
15 I will give you ginger bread.

Englemair speaks:

, Start the music, my dear player.
I will dance the best I can,
I and my clod companions.
20 Let us get this violet:
If you do a good job,
I will give an egg as reward:

Neidhart speaks to the Duchess:

Gracious lady delicate,
25 Now go this way with me.

So I shall show you the fine violet
I'fl^ich should be yours alone.

The first maiden goes with Neidhart

Maiden, you must look at the violet.
30 I covered it av.'ay from this peasant with my hat
Since I didn't trust him.
Look, delicate maiden, how stands it?

193 The maiden speaks:

Delicate most dear lady of mine.
This violet does not seem right to me.
Say, Neidhart, what has happened to you?
5 Have you mistaken a turd for a violet?

226
The second maiden speaks :

By your leave madam, you should know,
T]ie peasants have crapped on the violet.
We will damn them roundly.
10 We will look for it in the crap.

The third maiden :

Lady, let us push the crap away.
And search the gravel with our hands.
And if we find it, then we can say
15 That Neidhart did see the violet.
That we believe him all the more.
And that the peasants hate him.

The Duchess speaks:

i ^^

Neidhart you must leave the country,
20 Otherwise you must be jeered and shamed:

Neidhart speaks to the Duchess:

Sweet noble lady of Austria,
I bewail to you quite sadly
About the rude peasant,
25 And the others, who have done this disgrace to me.
My dear lord must also know tliis.
It was they who crapped on the violet.
Before I would forgive them this disgrace
I would sooner kill ten of them.

30 Englemair, on stilts, speaks:

I'm called Englemair, listen to me,
I'm coming on my stilts.
Sir Neidhart, I have a boy
194 V.liose name is Eltschenprecht .

If he doesn't play another trick on you
I'll be greatly saddened.

Eltschenprecht speaks:

5 V/ell, I'm Eltschenprecht,
And I'm a freeman.
Neidhart, you should know
That I crapped on the violet.

Neidhart speaks:

10 Counts, knights, and squires,

IVe must fight with the peasants.

227

Challenge them, prepare to fight

Witli them because of their wickedness and their envy.

A knight speaks:

15 I am called the knight from Satelpogen.
Look, Eltschenprecht , you are deceived.
I will hit you on the head
So you run about like a topless pot.

A peasant speaks:

20 I'm a peasant from Dingelfingcn.

Friends let us join together.

I have a braided forelock

With rings of armour meshed

And a sword that cost me two pounds .
25 With it I 'A'ill wound Neidhart. I

Neidhart, -aark that well.

I will fix you with my sword.

A knight speaks:

I am a knight from the Rhine.
30 Freely I will serve you.

I will enjoy fighting with peasants,
I have always been their enemy.
We'll take their cows and goats
195 And we will put them in the stocks.
If they come to this place,
I will stand the peasants alone.

A peasant speaks:

5 I am a real hero.
In the kitchen,
Wliere pretty women work.
There I hold my own.
If someone pulls a sharp sword
10 He'll find me first to flee.

A knight speaks:

I am a young strong knight.
I am so filled with gall.
To fight V'ith them is my fancy.
15 I'll strike the four rude peasants
At both their heels and heads
So they lie before me like split logs.

228

A peasant^ speaks :

A am a proud young peasant
20 And I am sick of Neidliart.

Knight, what will you think of your skill

If I stand you all alone.

I won't suffer this anymore.

I'll hew you tlirough your pauldron.

25 A knight speaks :

I am a knight from Hirschorn.
The peasants make my angry.
They must pay a heavy forfeit;
The right foot and the left hand
I will not miss a one.
30 I'll cut their peters from their butts.

196 A peasant speaks :

I am an undaunted peasant.
I don't care for Neidhart either.
Once at a fair
5 You sold us a salve

Miich made our bellies swell.
That's why we all hate you.
That's wliy I will repeat
I'm going to hit you very hard.

Neidhart 's squire speaks:

Sir Neidhart, take to hand
Your sword. I think this is no jest.
The peasants are feeling their beers
And might knock our hides off.
15 Put on your helmet of steel.

My good sir, I think that would be good.

Neidhart speaks:

Now come you knights and squires.

And pay the peasants for their rashness.

20 I admonish you at this time
To come do battle.
Everyone put on your helmet.
So I can stand before tlieir exuberance.
And come here to this place

25 So we can stand the peasants.

229
A knight says :

I am a young tender knight,
Neidhart, I tell you at this time,
If it were all as you servants would have it,
30 We would go with you until death
And joyfully join with you.
I hope we will be successful.

Hebenstreit speaks:

Listen, I am Hebenstreit.
197 Neidhart, defend yourself. Now is the time.

Now they strike one another. The Devil speaks,

I am the evil devil and I
Torture hard and take the souls
5 IVho fall here and are killed.
Them I drag to hell
And bring them before Lucifer.
The peasants' souls are not unwelcome.

A peasant speaks:

10 Fight ho! Fight on!

I have slept so long today

My brother has been killed.

I wail to Christ in heaven.

Neidhart, I will not rebuke you,
15 But pay you up in full.

Another peasant speaks :

Friend Knopf, calm yourself.
I know a doctor
IVho always heals our wounds.
20 The doctor's name is Laurein.

Laurein speaks:

I, Laurein, have a good potion.
The peasant who is wounded and sick
Will be better if he drinks from this vial.
25 In truth I say this.

Hebenstreit speaks:

Laurein, you have helped me well.
I shall always thank you.

230

A knight speaks :

Come, Neidhart, it is time,
198 Since we have won the victory

The Duchess will give us as reward
Eat and drink and a happy life.
Because we have brought the peasants to shame.
5 Now give the Duchess your hand!

Reveler:

Prosper, and God spare your health
Until a penny is worth a hundred pounds.
Let God grant you a happy life

10 Until we give your gifts back.

Good night! You'd like to sit longer
Though the fast will be all the liarder
After Shrovetide has come to you.
So one should read of the Passion:

15 So we lay our sins aside.

God willing, we'll be here next year.

APPENDIX D

The Sterziiig Scenerio

The source of the Sterzing Scenerio is a manuscript found in the
Sterzing archives. It was edited and conjoined with some twenty- five
other plays from various manuscripts by Oswald Zingerle and published as
number twenty-six in Sterzinger Spiele in Wiener Neudrucke, XI (Vienna,
1886), 236-263.

236 Directions for the Neydthart Play, etc.

Item: Ivlien the procession is to enter into the

barriers, the pipers should lead. Someone ought to
go v;ith them to make way through the crowd in order
that there be sufficient room. Thereafter comes the

.. _ . Prologue in the lead and two knights immediately

preceding the Duchess who is accompanied by a
chamberlain. Thereafter comes Neydthart with his
knights, companions, and maidens. Finally, Ennglmayer
and Ellschnprecht and their neighbors, wives, and
maids come in.

IVlien all have come before the barriers as far
as a few steps, all should stand still in the procession
order.

237 ' The Prologue (solo) should cross to the middle
of the barriers and say:

231

232

Hear this, you Ladies and Gentlemen,

Both Noble and Common, who have come to this place!

You shall see a most unusual adventure,

I solemnly assure you.

I beg you kindly not to be distressed

Perchance someone stammers

Because he doesn't know his lines.

They can't all read

Because tliey have never been to school.

After this speech comes another prologue.

See here. Ladies and Gentlemen.

VJhat an excellent adventure will be shown

You here. It comes . . . etc.

Then the cast goes in procession about the
barriers. There should be chairs and benches set up.
The Duchess sits with her entourage at the highest place.

On one side, at some distance, are Neydthart,
his knights and servants.

In another place, opposite and lower, are
Ennglmayer and his company with their wives and maids.
The piper pipes up.

Then the Duchess, with her maidens, rises and

speaks to Neydthart and his knights who also rise.

238 You Lords, Knights, and Squires,

Listen, and mark me well.
Today we shall here . . . etc.

Thereafter the Duchess and her maidens sit again.

Neydthart, standing with his company, crosses (solo) to

the Duchess, bows respectfully and says:

Noble princess with out peer,

I should like it to be known without a doubt . . . etc.

Then the Duchess replies to Neydthart:

233

Approach you knight so bold and virtuous.
I grant you the honor.
It does us . . . etc.

Then Neydthart bows before the Duchess, she

gives him her hand. Thereafter, he goes back to his

knights and says:

Neydthart is my name.

I am newly come into this quest.

Before this time I have . . . etc.

Then Neydthart and his company go about the ring
of the barriers searching for the violet.

He finds it at last in the middle of the place.

He removes his hat and says to the little flower:

239 How welcome you are little flower.

Since you cause my heart such joy.
To you all . . , etc.

Then Neydthart, his knights and entourage stand
about the violet they love so well and speak to one
another about it.

During this the peasants rise unobtrusively and
Ennglmayer leads them severally into the barriers to a
place where they hold conference. Then Neydthart and his
company return to their place and sit. Thereafter the
peasants return to their place.
Ebergugl: The peasant Ebergugl stands before Ennglmayer
and says:

0, Ennglmayer, you wise man.
Listen to what I saw today.
I came upon . . . etc.

234

Cngglmayer : Hnnglmayer answers Hbergugl:

0, Hbergugl , my dear neighbor,
That is not good news.
Neydthart is . . , etc.

Ellschnproclit : Then Ellschnprccht stands before his nciglibors

and says:

240 Ellschnprccht is my name.

And I am the best judge of this suit.
I can shit . . . etc.

Elsamut: Elsamut goes to lier liusband Ellschnprccht and says:

Alas, my dear Ellsclmprecht , '

Your judgement was not good. '

Beware you . . .etc.

Ellschnprccht: Ellschnpreclit replies to his wife:

Well now, get you home, you wretched woman.
I tell you truly, my life as forfeit.
Beware indeed . . . etc.

Then his wife returns to her neiglibors and sits

again. Ellschnprccht stealthily crosses to the violet.

He drops a round from his ordinance upon it [he defecates]

and happily returns to his neighbors. His wife meets

him on the way and says:

Well Ellschnprccht, my dear husl^and,
Now tell, what have you done?

Ellschnpreclit: He says to her:

Look here, beloved Elsamut,

Wliat a great pain my ass is giving me.

I did . . . etc.

241 Thereafter tlicy go to their place and Ellschnprecht
goes to the neighbors and says:

235

Dear neighbors, I have news for you.
Neydthart is witliout honor.
Today did he . . . etc.

Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer says to him:

Many thanks to you, good Ellschnprecht.
In all your days you never did as well.
Now l;e shall . . , etc.

Thereafter the peasants seat themselves again in
their places.
Neydthart: Neydthart with his knights and company crosses to

the Duchess. He speaks to her:

!'■
Oh noble lady of this land, ' '
May great lienor and joy be yours
From me and ... etc.

The Duchess: The Duchess rises and with her entourage places

the garland on Neydthart and says:

Neydthart, my dear servant, ' , ^••-•;

I place upon your head the garland ■. : -' '
Of great honor and . . . etc. •. ^ ' :,-v 'v '

Neydthart: Now Neydthart order the pipers to lead off. He
says to them:

^'*^ Pipe up, you players.

Now is the hour when naught but joy can be!
IVe shall . . . etc.

So the pipers play and the entire cast in procession
order go about the ring in the arena, finally arriving
at their stations.

The pipers take their place and play for the
dance. Neydthart dances with the Duchess. The knights
and maidens do likewise, as do the peasants and their

236

wives and girls thereafter. l\"-ien they are in their

stations around tlie violet (the peasants should not

take these stations) , the peasants go to their place

and sit.

The Duchess: The Duchess speaks to Neydthart :

Neydthart, you worthy man,
l\Tio at this very place
Did cover . . , etc.

Neydthart: Neydthart speaks to the Duchess and points to

the hat:

Oh dear lady most delicate.
Here stands the violet so fine.
It seems to me . . . etc.

During this, Neydthart takes the Duchess by the hand.

The maidens follow. The knights remain still. He

243 leads the lady to tlie violet. He lifts the hat and

lets her look.

The Duchess: She gags and speaks to Neydthart:

Oh Neydthart, what is this wicked trick?
Look, what kind of violet is that?
You have done me . . . etc.

The First Maiden: The First Maiden stands before the Duchess

and says:

Oh dear lady.

Leave off your anger.

Neydthart is . . . etc.

The Second Maiden: The Second Maiden stands before the first

and says :

IVhat are you saying about Neydthart?
Leave off such thoughts now.
WTio did no . . . etc.

237

Chamberlain: Then the Chamberlain advises the Duchess:

Now my dear lady,

It does not seein to me

That . . . etc.

So they leave and the Duchess and her entourage

return to their places.

Neydthart and his company return to their place.

The Third Maiden: The Third Maiden goes to Neydthart and says:

244 Neydthart, quickly leave this land.

Avoid the great dishonor
That you . . , etc.

The maiden returns to her place.

Neydthart: Afterward Neydthart leaves his companions and walks

to the middle of the playing area. He cries mournfully:

Oh curse and damn this dishonor.
Never did such happen to anyone
As happened to me today . . . etc.

Then Neydthart, standing still, calls his squire

Schlycknwein:

Schlyckmvein, where are you?

The squire comes forwax'd and says:

I am here. Sir.

The Neydthart says to him:

Now, go my dear Schlycknwein,
Bring all my good companions
From . . . etc.

Neydthart remains standing in place. Schlycknwein

goes to the knights and says:

238

Mark, good gentlemen all,

How should my message please you!

To me . . . etc.

The Knights: Then tlie Knights go to Neydthart. The Fix'st

Knight says to him:

245 Sir Neydthart, my dear cousin,*
Ulierefore you great sorrow?
Does it come . . , etc.

Neydthart says to all:

Oh good knights and friends of mine,
I can never be liappy agaiii.
To me . . . etc.

The Second Knight: The Second Knight says to Neydthart:

I tell you good Cousin Neydthart,
We shall all be undone.
Without honor . . . etc.

Neydthart stands with his knights.

Ennglmayer: Then Ennglmayer goes alone to them and says:

I am called Ennglmayer.
My neighbors sent me here
From Zieslmair . . , etc.

Neydthart: Neydthart speaks to Ennglm.ayer:

So you are called Ennglmayer.
I have met you before.
It did my . . . etc.

Ennglmayer returns to his neighbors.

The Third Knight: The Tliird Knight says to Neydthart:

My eyes would gladly feast

On the one who did this wrong.

'iVlio he . . . etc.

246 They remain in place.

*Oheim = "Uncle" directly translated.

239

Ellschnprecht : Then Ellschnprecht goes to them and says:

I am called Ellschnprecht,

And I am the very boy

Ulio will shit a turd in your mouth.

Ellschnprecht remains by them.

The Fourth Knight: The Fourth Knight comes forward and speaks

to Ellschnprecht:

I am a high born knight

And such a rage I have for you

It will . . . etc.

Now everyone returns to their places.

The Master at Arms: Then the Master at Arms comes to the

middle of the acting area with his sword and says:

1 am a skilled swordsman

UTio comes from a foreign land

With my . . . etc.

He displays his sword skills. He remains in the

acting area.

Peasant Gumpl: Then the Fourth Peasant, Gumpl, goes into

the barriers and says to all:

Neighbor Gumpl is my name

A great rumpus we shall cause

With him . . . etc.

Gumple stands in place next to the Master at

Arms and remains still.

247 The Fifth Knight: Then the Fifth Knight comes in and stations

himself next to/them/and says:

I am a knight most joyous.
One can hardly find my like
With blows and . , , etc.

240

The Peasant from Lynden: The Eighth Peasant from Lyndon comes

in and says to tlie same kniglit :

I am Mayr of Lynden

And I can spin the yarn.

Your Nobilities, I . . . etc.

And the peasant also stands in place.

The Sixth Knight: Tlie Sixth Knight enters and says to him:

So you are Mayr of Lynden,
Soon you shall be laid to rest
Since I your . . . etc.

Peasant Eberzanndt : The Seventh Peasant Eberzanndt comes and

says to all:

Mayr Eberzanndt is my name.

Of Neydthart I will have revenge.

I have him . . . etc.

The Seventh Knight: Tlie Seventh Knight enters and says to all:

Now shall 1 never turn from my course.
I shall find Ellschnprecht
Should he to me be . . . etc.

The knight stands with the others in place.

248 The Eighth Peasant of Prunnan comes forth and speaks to his

neighbors :

Mayr of Prunnen is my name.
I am entirely of the mind
That we should . . . etc.

The Eighth Knight: The Eighth Knight comes forth and speaks

to Mayr of Prunnan:

You are Mayr of Prunnan.
You have hardly any mind.
You are but . . . etc .

Peasant Reyssnzaun: The Ninth Peasant, Reyssnzaun, comes forth

and says to tlie knights wlio are standing there:

Well, 1 am a roaring peasant.
You are too bitter for us.
We will . . . etc.

■ 241

The Ninth Knight: The NintJi Knight comes to Neydthart and leads

his a little distance away and says:

Neydthart, give us youi* advice

Before this business has gone too far.

The wicked peasants . . . etc.

Neydthart: Then Neydthart says to him:

I have good advice I'll give

By which we shall save our lives.

We shall . . . etc.

249 Thereafter, everyone returns to his place. Neydthart

calls to his squire Zyppryan and says:

Zyppryan, where are you?

This same squire enters and replies:

Sir, I am here.

Neydthart shows him the notice of challenge in

a casket and says:

My good squire Zyppryan,

You know full well how this is done.

Bring this letter to , . . etc.

So the squire takes the letter in the casket to

Ennglmayer and says:

Ennglmayer, look.

I bring this letter to you

Sent by . . . etc.

So Ennglmayer takes the letter. During this the

messenger remains standing still. Then Ennglmayer shows

[the letter] to his neighbors for their advice. They

want the messenger to read it.

Ennglm.ayer: Ennglmayer says to Zyppryan:

242

Good messenger, we caiiiiot read
As we have never been to scliool.
Therefore, please . . . etc.

250 Tlien Zyppryan takes tlie letter from Ennglmayer

and reads aloud to the peasants:

Know this, Ennglmayer, Ellschnprecht , and

Guglwein,
And all those who would be your helpers,
Uliether old or young . . . etc.

Ennglmayer: The messenger remains in place as Ennglmayer

speaks to him:

Ho! Ho! With this news I'm not all displeased
Let them know that we would fight.
You should your . . . etc.

Thereafter the peasants rise willy nilly, cheering.

Zyppryan: Zyppryan returns to Neydthart and says:

Neydthart, my dear sir,
Ennglm.ayer and liis company
Begin to . . . etc.

And then Zyppryan returns to his companions.

Neydthart: And Neydthart speaks to the knights:

Attention you knights and squires.
All stand now at the ready.
We shall . . . etc.

Thereafter, Neydth.art, his knights and company

251 stand within the barriers. Then the peasants move in,

armed and opposing them.

Mayr of Pewnt: Mayr of Pewnt speaks aloud to his neighbors:

Mayr of Pewnt is my name.

Listen, Ennglmayer and my good friends

Wlio today . . . etc.

Neydthart: Then Neydthart with his weapon drawn, opposing the

peasants, says:

243

You worthless peasants of such ill-repute.
Let everyone of you beware his life.
And though . . . etc.

Then the drummer sounds the call to battle and

Neydthart and his company attack the peasants. All

strike one another until Ellschnprccht loses a leg.

Ennglmayer and his peasants stand their ground until all

are wounded.

Eberzandt: Then Eberzandt should cry aloud to Neydthart and

liis knights:

Good sir, leave off.

You have won the victory.

Thus you have . . . etc.

252 ; Then Neydthart with his company should go from

the peasants to some other place.

Ellschnprccht 's Wife: Then Ellschnprecht ' s Wife should go to

her husband and sorrowfully speaks to him:

Oh, Ellschnprecht, my dear husband.
How often have I told you.
It is this . . . etc.

So then Ellschnprecht should sadly speak to her
off to one side and then send her home to her neighbors
again. The rest of the peasants should rem.ain together
standing or lying in the center of the acting area.

And there should be a table and a bench set up in
another part of the barriers. A Doctor comes with many
containers and salves which he puts on the table. Tlie
Doctor's boy, Allwein, says to him:

244

Good Master, sit down awhile.

Rest your limbs

And take a . . . etc.

So the Doctor sits at the table.

Then the peasants bring Ellschnprecht in a manure

cart .

Ebergugl: Ebergugl stands forth and says to the Doctor:

253 God bless you, Leai-ned Master,

I have heard much of you.
How you . . . etc.

The Doctor: The Doctor speaks to Ebergugl:

I can certainly make him well,

That you must believe without a doubt.

With ray . . . etc.

So the Doctor and his boy put Ellschnprecht on

stilts. Then the Doctor and liis boy should go to another

place in the barriers by themselves and remain there, as

if they had gone home.

Glara: Then Clara, Ennglmayer's wife, goes to her husband,

who is lying sick with his head and hands bound up.

She speaks:

Oh woe! Woe today and evermore!
Such an evil deed was done!
Ennglmayer, my . . . etc.

Then the wives of all the men should come to

their husbands, wailing and complaining. Tliey remain

with them.

Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer stands weakly and says to his wife:

Come, my dear Clara.
.^v I think it's good that you
Came so soon . . . etc.

245

254 Clara: Then Clara goes to tlie Doctor, speaks with him, and

asks him to come with her to her husband. Then they

set out together. She tells her husband that she has

brought the Doctor.

Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer speaks to the Doctor thusly:

Dear Master, I wish to say,
I am by battle hard smitten.
Can you know . . . etc.

The Doctor: The Doctor ansv^ers Ennglmayer:

Yes I, my dear Ennglmayer, ,

I can heal you with a fine salve. |
Directly I . . , etc.

Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer says in reply:

My dear Master, do this truly
And this you shall not rue.
I will give . . . etc.

So the Doctor and his boy salve Ennglmayer and

Ellschnprecht .

The Doctor's Boy: Then the Doctor's boy speaks to Ennglmayer:

Ennglmayer, be assured

This potion shall not injure you

If you . . . etc.

Everyone sits, then everyone stands and the [members

of the] entire play return to their former places and sit,

255 Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer calls to his wife and asks:

Wife, where are you?

She stands forth.

Here I am my dear husband.
Now what would you like?

He says to her:

246

Dear Clara, you should quickly go

And buy us tvjo garlands.

One for me and the other . . . etc.

So, somewhere in the arena is a place where tliere

arc garlands sold. Clara goes to buy two of these

garlands .
Ellschnprecht : Then IZllschnprecht goes to the Doctor to see

about the amount and the fee.
Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer searches for Ellschnprecht. He meets

him in the center of the acting area and speaks to him:

God's blessings, dear Ellschnprecht.
This business is gone awry.
So now we . . . etc.

They both go together to their neighbors.

Clara: Then Clara brings the two garlands and says to them:

Look here, dear liusband, this is yours.
The other belongs to our Ellschnprecht.
There with . . . etc.

256 Then a Fiddler or a Piper should station himself

at that place so they can dance.

Ellsclmprecht : Ellschnprecht says to them:

Be joyful, my dear company.

Then shall we do a spirited dance

To make us . . . etc.

The Fiddler or the player starts the dance. And

Ellschnprecht leads the dance forth with Clara. Ennglmayer

with Elsamut thereafter. Then the peasants and their wives

follow in a great round. Thereafter the entire cast sits

again in their respective places.

247

Then NeyJthart goes from his company to anotlier

place in tlie bari'iers. There he stands, as if he did not

want them to know where he was.

The Fourth Maiden: Thereafter the Fourth Maiden goes to the

knights and says to them:

God's blessings, noble knights so fine.
If you'd care to be of aid
And to my lady go . . . etc.

The First Knight: The First Knight speaks to the maiden:

Thank you, noble maiden so delicate.
Your message we happily hear now.
We would with . . . etc.

257 Then the maiden leads them to the Duchess.

Neydthart remains in his place standing or sitting.

The Second Knight: The Second Knight speaks to the Duchess:

Dear Duchess, so high born,
We plead for your largess.
You should . . . etc.

The Duchess: The Duchess says to him:

Now you gentle knight.

Say to Neydthart in this way:

You have . . . etc.

The Third Knight: The knights go to Neydthart and the Third

Knight says to him:

Sir Neydthart, I bring you good news
Which should lighten your heart.
And no longer . . . etc.

Neydthart: Neydthart replies to him:

Oh, dear companions, I say to you
I fear I dare not take a chance.
Directly I shall . . . etc.

248
The Fourtli Knight: Then the Fourth Knight speaks:

Neydtliart, you should not despair.
You should boldly act!
You have . . . etc.

258 Neydthart : Neydthart replies to them:

Dear Friends, I would like to believe you.
But I fear this shall cause me rue.
Even so, I shall . . . etc.

Then they all go to the Duchess. Neydthart falls

to one knee and says:

Most illustrious princess of such grace, ,1
I humbly pray your indulgence 1

So you . . . etc.

The Duchess: The Duchess says to him:

Sir Neydthart, we know

That the peasants have great hate for you.

IVho you . . . etc.

Neydthart: Neydthart replies:

High born princess so great.
Since your anger at me is passed.
Thank you . . . etc.

Everyone sits. Thereafter everyone in the cast

sits in his place as before.

The Second Prologue: The Second Prologue comes before the

peasants with Neydthart 's son. They rise as he says:

Look, neighbors, I have good news.
Here is Neydthart the Younger.
He would . . . etc.

259 Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer says to Neydthart the Younger:

Tell us, good Younger Neydthart,
IVliat is your attitude toward us.
Would you . . . etc.

249

Neydthart the Younger: Ncydthart the Younger answers him:

Ennglmayerj my good neighbor,
I would befriend you all.
And would . . . etc.

Ennglmayer: Then Ennglmayer says to him:

Now see, let it be so

That your father does not come hereby.

Or he will , . . etc.

Neydthart the Younger:

I tell you upon my oath

My father shall do you no wrong.

I, too, shall heed . . . etc.

Everyone sits. Thereafter everyone returns to their

place as before. Then someone comes riding in with a

keg to the middle of the barricades. He loudly exclaims

while sitting on the keg:

Hear you knights and nobles.

Since you are happily gathered here together.

Also they . . . etc.

260 Jcicl Kolwitz: JMcl Kolwitz stands forth and says to the carter:

Many thanks, my good carter.

Never in all your days did you so well.

And had all . . . etc.

Ennglmayer: Then Ennglmayer speaks to his neighbors:

Neighbors Sauffnwein and Eberzandt,
Nicl Mayer's son from Oberlanndt,
Reyssnzawn, Hawenspeck . . . etc.

Then the peasants set up the keg. Tables and

benches should be placed near the keg, so that all of

the peasants can sit. Then the wine is served from the

keg. They drink, shout, indulge in wild living and all

manner of grossness.

250 ■

Neydthart the Elder: And wlien they liave been at this awliile,

Neydthart, himibly disguised in a peasant's costume,

arrives. No one recognizes him, so he freely speaks to

the peasants at the table:

God's blessings, dear neighbors all.

You drink with great spirit.

This business is well conducted . . . etc.

261 Then he cries aloud:

Neydthart forever!

and hides himself from the peasants. Tlie second keg

arrives. Then another keg arrives on a cart or carriage.

Neydthart has secretly removed its bottom and slipped

within. The peasants, alarmed, stand in their places.

Ennglmayer: Ennglmayer, standing alone, says:

Ho, ho! The Elder Neydthart is here.
I knew it when first I heard him speak.
We must . . . etc.

So Ennglmayer returns to his neighbors.

Peasant RUmpolt: Then the First Peasant, Rtlmpolt, steps forth

and speaks:

Neydthart thinks he is well hidden.
He shall find . . . etc.

Sauffnwein: Then the Second Peasant, Sauffnwein, steps forth

and says to his companions:

Sauffnwein is my name.
Listen, my dear companions,
I tell you . . . etc.

Sauffnwein' s . wife goes to him and says:

251

262 Sauffnwein, take my advice,

You should fight no more today.
It is true . . . etc.

Jcicl kolwitz: Jllcl Kolwitz stands forth and says:

jycl Kolwitz is my name.
In my vest I often sweat.
If I . . . etc.

Clara: Clara steps before her husband and says:

My good husband, I tell you this,
I knew for a long time
Of Neydthart's . . . etc.

Ennglmayer's Son: Then Ennglmayer's Son stands forth and

answers her:

Mother, what drunken talk is that?
My father's place is here by me.
And you also . . . etc.

Then the peasants back and stab the keg, but

Neydtliart secretly has left. Mere put something within

the cask which would produce a noise.

Ennglmayer: Then Ennglmayer speaks to his neighbors:

Listen, dear neighbors.
All those from Zeislmaur,
Uliat we . . . etc.

Everyone to his place: Then everyone returns to

his place in the order in which he came in. And the

Prolosue stands in the middle of the barricades and

says ;

Now hear this, all young and old.

Poor and rich.

We have had here a play,

Mierein much has been said.

And though at length Neydthart came to die.

252

Yet his name does not wane,

For he left many children behind.

Those who do hateful deeds

Rarely gain much fi'om them,

As one now must know.

Here ends our play.

Pipe up you players, quickly now!

So they pipe up and join with the px'ocession

which leaves in the same way it came in.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Victor Renai-d Cook was born in Parsons, Kansas, on December 14, 1937.
He attended the public schools of East St. Louis, Illinois, and graduated
from Bast St. Louis High Scliool, January, 1956. He attended Southern
Illinois ■ University at Carbondale, Illinois, for one year, then he
enlisted in the United States Army. Ifliile in the service he attended
the Anny Language School for the year 1958, inhere he studied Czech.
Subsequently he was stationed in Europe as a member of the Army Security
Agency. In 1963, he graduated from Southern Illinois University with
the degree of Caclielor of Science in Theatre. In 1955, he received a
Master of Arts degree in speech from the University of Florida. There-
after, he taught for- three years in the state university systems of
New York and North Carolina.

Chief among biis non-academic accomplislnnents are his marriage to
Jennifer IVest Cook and their subsequent adoption of an infant son, Kelly
Renard Cook.

262

This dissertation v^as prepared under the direction of the chairman
of the candidate's supervisory committee and has been approved by
all members of that committee. It was submitted to the Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences and to the Graduate Council, and was
approved as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy.

August, 1969

9

c. .

Dean, College of /Vr^^t's-afid Sciences

J

Dean, Graduate School

Supervisory Committee:

--i::i^UJ^crzck£.

V^v

^ ^04t- CL_^^^^